White House Attempts To Navigate Mideast Changes
Hezbollah, which the U.S. calls a terrorist organization, is emerging as the main political power broker in Lebanon. Protesters toppled an autocrat in Tunisia, and many are taking to the streets in Egypt seemingly trying to do the same.
The U.S. is trying to encourage change — without too much turmoil or anti-American backlash.
Some U.S. foreign policy watchers were so worried that the Obama administration wasn't doing enough to support democratic forces in Egypt last year that they formed a working group to give the U.S. a wake-up call.
One member, Robert Kagan of the Brookings Institution, says the U.S. is coming around now, but only after protesters took to the streets across Egypt.
"The illusion that a lot of people had been living with, and I think the administration had also accepted, was that there is such a thing as stability in Egypt that you can hold on to. I think the days of stability in Egypt are over. Egypt is in transition," he says.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/01/28/133280719/white-house-attempts-to-navigate-mideast-changes?ft=1&f=1004