The enemy of my enemy is still a bad man.

What should America do about the revolution in Egypt? Nothing, absolutely nothing! Anwar Sadat, Egyptian President 1970 - 1981, was assassinated by fundamentalists, now known as terrorists. Hosni Mubarak was an acceptable moderate Arab who jailed fundamentalists, some of whom later plotted the first attack on the World Trade Center. He was the enemy of our enemy, those evil fundamentalists, but as we learn from today's headlines, he is a bad man.

Today's knee jerk reaction is to support Egyptian revolutionaries because Mubarak is a bad man, making them enemies of our enemy, but that does not make them good men. Who will lead Egypt after the revolution? Mohamed ElBaradei, the UN nuclear guy? Why not, he won the Nobel Peace Prize? Yassar Arafat also won the Nobel Peace Prize and he was THE PLO terrorist. ElBaradei is the same guy who led unsuccessful nuclear inspections in Iran and Iraq and who the US opposed openly.

Just because he is the enemy of our enemy (Mubarak) does not make him a good man. And he probably will not be kind to us because we opposed him on the world stage. It is not in America's best interest to support or oppose any party in Egypt. Can we learn from out past mistakes in that region.

We supported, trained, funded, and equipped Osama bin Laden because he led Afghan freedom fighters who were fighting the invading Russian army, Russia was our enemy. We are fighting bin Laden today. But at the time he was the enemy of our enemy, never mind that he was and continues to be a bad man. Bin Laden is the worst enemy America has ever had, but he was our friend once upon a time.

We supported the Shah of Iran. I was stationed at Fort Bliss in 1973 and attended the University of Texas at El Paso '77 to '80. Iranians studied earnestly at UTEP and at Bliss, lots of them. I lost a girl friend to an Iranian at UTEP, guess I got the last laugh on that one. We were friendly with Iran because they gave us a platform to base weapons to counter balance the Soviet Threat. The Shah was the enemy of our enemy, and our friend. But the Shah was a bad man. He ruled with an iron fist and his death squads were brutal and indiscriminate.

Iranians, led by their clergy, revolted in 1979, giving rise to the Iranian Hostage Crises that brought down President Jimmy Carter. Today we have an Iranian nation that is a threat to the entire region. We supported the Shah knowing he was a bad man and he has been replaced by many bad men who lead a terrorist sponsoring nation. What a horrible outcome! Oh, by the way, the Shah and Anwar Sadat were very close allies.

We hated the new Iranian government led by an extremist clergy. Their enemy became our friend - Saddam Hussein. We trained him and armed him. He launched a vicious war against Iran with US-provided arms. He was a bad man. He gassed Kurds and invaded Kuwait. We stood by and watched in 1991 when he ordered a fatal attack against thousands of unarmed Kurdish refugees fleeing his aggression.

We are still in Iraq years after we deposed Hussein. Is Iraq peaceful today, or democratic, or on the road to recovery? Insurgents continue suicide bombings killing hundreds of bystanders. History will judge the new head of Iraq, Nouri al Maliki, but he has yet to prove himself to be a good man.

The middle east has a history of turmoil. They don't like western values or interference. How will Egyptians respond to American meddling in their affairs? Will ElBaradei be a good man? There are too many variables. Do YOU trust the American government to back the right man? Given our history of backing the wrong man in that region time and again, I cannot trust American diplomats to make the right choice.

I pray for peace in the world. I pray for the world's people. I'm not sure who to support in Egypt, the revolutionaries or the government. The evil you know is sometimes better than the evil you don't know. One thing is sure in my mind, we should not endorse any party. Let them do what they will. They will kill each other, that is bad. But they are consenting adults, let them kill each other with their own bullets.

May the Lord of Abraham judge them because He did not give me the wisdom to do so, and I know that He did not give you the wisdom to do so either. He certainly wasn't kind to our Secretary of State and nothing gives me reason to believe that he was generous with any of those who lead our diplomatic missions in that region. Hence my opinion, do nothing. Let the revolution unfold. Let Egyptians select their own leader however they choose to do so. The next leader might be a bad man too, but he might be a good man. It could happen. But the Egyptian people will not blame Americans for their choices. God help them because America cannot.