Putting Condi In Her Place

Secretary of State and White House Eye Candy Condoleeza Rice was in Egypt on Monday, laying some verbal whupass on Our Allies in Southwest Asia. Among other things, she said (according to the BBC), "Throughout the Middle East the fear of free choices can no longer justify the denial of liberty ... [I]t is time to abandon the excuses that are made to avoid the hard work of democracy."

Now, this was probably greeted with some fixed smiles and rolling eyes in Cairo, but it was Our Dear Allies Oh And Our Chief Supplier Of Oil, Saudi Arabia that shut her down. Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said, "The row is really meaningless ... the assessment that is important for any country in the development of its political reform is the judgment of its own people."

In other words, "Sit down and shut up, you infidel woman."

I wonder how Condi's words would have played if she'd said them in Israel, whose 'democratic' government has for years denied a significant segment of their population the full exercise of civil liberties, as well as exercised a largely brutal occupation.

I'm certain that Egypt and Saudi Arabia will gradually democratize and grant more civil liberties. Hell, they might even stop jailing anyone who disagrees with them, or shutting down any form of political opposition.

But not because Condi says so, and not because the US says so either. Sovereign nations have an inherent right to self-determination.