Rice Declares USA will no longer Nurture More 'Saddams'

Of his bones are coral made
Those are pearls that were his eyes
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change

- Shakespeare

In Cairo US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice revealed a watershed US policy for the Middle-East, that the USA will no longer tolerate repressive regimes in the name of political stability – in other words, Rice is saying that the USA will no longer play footsie with repressive regimes even when those are pro-US, eg. American allies such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and other similar undemocratic dictatorial brutal regimes.

Rice didn’t exactly mentioned the above countries by name, but she reserved her finger-pointing for two, the anti-US governments of Iran and Syria – should we be surprised?

The rest, namely those US allies, will just have to surmise that there was a subtle message somewhere within her speech for them as well, but then repressive draconian regimes are fairly thick-skin.

Mind you, to be fair to Rice, she did hint strongly to Egypt.

I believe Rice is sincere, though I am not sure whether this US policy sea change is just an euphoric and momentary lapse in the wake of the election victory for the Lebanese political parties who are anti-Syrian.

I heard on the radio this morning, an expert warning that democratic governments in the Middle-East may not necessarily be friendly to USA, which suddenly bring us (and the US strategists) back to square one. Yawnnnnnnn.

But if what she has announced is indeed a true reversal of hitherto US Middle-Eastern policies, perhaps then the USA may be on its path back to the ideals and leadership of real democracy. I fervently hope this would be the case, and wish Rice all the best, with an advice for her to watch her back. ;-)