The ends justify the means.
While I usually might agree with that mentality, there are some cases in which I simply can’t agree with it.
America has to deal with countries and people in the world who do not like us or our ideals. However, we should never give up our values while dealing with them. The lesser of two evils is still an evil, and we shouldn’t delude ourselves into thinking anything different.
Recently, one of these supposed lesser of two evils finally came under attack by his people. Hosni Mubarak, the nearly 30-year president of Egypt, is now facing pressure from his countrymen to step down. For far too long they have had to silently suffer through the hardships his administration imposed, and like many others, they now want a change to the system.
It’s just too bad we’ve seen Mubarak as an ally for most of his presidency.
Even as Mubarak’s countrymen began to rise up against him, our own president and his cabinet refused to leave his side as an ally. Only last week did President Barack Obama call for a peaceful and meaningful transition of power.
It isn’t hard to see why exactly they would be reluctant to give up such a long-standing ally, especially considering where Egypt’s leadership might go in the coming months.
As most people know, Israel isn’t the most popular country in the Middle East. However, among the many countries set against them, they at least had an amiable relationship with Mubarak.
After Obama’s talk for a transition in Egypt, some in Israel would see that move as desertion.
Although Mubarak may have been friendly toward Israel, the same cannot be said about most people in Egypt.
If someone who expresses the will of the people is brought to power following the fall of Mubarak, Israel could be left completely alone in the Middle East.
Again, these reasons do not even begin to excuse working with someone who does not treat his people properly. This isn’t the first time it has happened, and it won’t be the last.
Throughout the last century America has sided with those it has deemed as the lesser evil. Whether it’s Joseph Stalin against Adolf Hitler, Fulgencio Batista against Fidel Castro, Ngo Dinh Diem against Ho Chi Minh, Saddam Hussein against Iran or most recently Mubarak against Islamic extremism, many cases show it’s a fairly common practice.
In all of these cases, we seem to choose the side that will fight a perceived movement of greater evil. While the greater part of the last century has been fighting the supposed spread of communism, it has changed more recently to stopping Islamic extremism.
We may have succeeded in stopping a perceived greater global threat, but usually it appears the people who have to pay the heaviest price are the people ruled over by our “allies.”
Here’s one example. Although Hitler may have been responsible for the systematic killing of anywhere between 11 and 17 million people, Stalin also had more than 14 million people sent to Gulags, where at least a million of them would die.
Stalin is also the person we so fondly referred to as “Uncle Joe” throughout World War II.
While the Soviet Union may have been an invaluable part in defeating Germany, allying ourselves with them does not resonate well with the ideals we hold dear.
In cases like this and the current situation in Egypt, the ends we want to achieve do not support the means we have to go through. We are a country that champions itself on the will of the people being such an important part of governing, and we should act more like it.
Our reluctance to side with the people of Egypt in their struggle for greater freedom is something I wish we could redo. While we may be losing a long standing ally, America should at least rejoice that more people can soon share more of the freedoms we enjoy.
Zachary Davis is a 20-year-old history junior from Warsaw, Poland. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_Zdavis.
 
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Contact Zachary Davis at [email protected]