Insanity or Stupidity?

There's a fashionable definition of insanity as "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result." Personally, I think that's more indicative of stupidity. But in any case it does show a misguided stubborness, an unwillingness to learn, and to maintain that "It's going to work because it has to work."

The result of the recent elections in Egypt, in which the Islamist parties came out ahead, are frankly alarming. An Islamist regime in Egypt would not be terribly friendly to the US or Israel and would further destabilize the region. In fact the upshot of the "Arab Spring" has merely resulted in the demise of two pro-Western governments (Egypt and Tunisia) and the collapse of one regime (Libya) that for geographic reasons was especially vulnerable to Western pressure. Other than that it has only produced more violence and instability.

It seems that our foreign policy pundits don't get it that we shouldn't be messing in the internal affairs of other countries. The delusions of the Neo-Conservatives who dragged us into the mess in Iraq should have shown us that. These days nobody will admit to being a Neo-conservative, but the Foreing Policy elite still continue to act as if we can somehow control events in the rest of the world.

The only way we should "promote" democracy is by setting a good example in our own conduct. In that sense we are failing miserably.