The US: Applying lessons learned from Iran of ’79 to Egypt of ’11

I hate being quoted because journalists often do such a terrible job of correctly conveying the sentiment, sometimes even taking things out of context, but I’m happy with The Michigan Review for quoting me properly: “While the events unfolded, the Obama administration and the State Department tried to find the right diplomatic tone. However, reaction to the uprisings hasn’t really shown a great shift in U.S. Foreign Policy according to Pouya Alimagham ‘the real shift came after the first gulf war when the U.S. established a permanent military presence in the region.’ Alimagham believes that U.S. policy had become more aggressive in the region since then and leading to the latest Iraq war. ‘But,’ he said, ‘the country [the US] learned something from the 1979 Iranian Revolution and as a result did not hold strong in their support of Mubarak in order to preserve the Egyptian military—and through it—maintain ties with the future order.’ It remains to be seen whether any of these other protests will amount to any significant change, but because “most regimes are loathed and despised by their people,” said Alimagham, it is expected that they [the protests] will continue.”