Congressional Black Caucus

Some members are protesting the Sudanese embassy and getting themselves arrested.

Hmmm...why do they expect a government willingly allowing a genocide to occur would give a shit if a couple of folks protesting outside their embassy? I'm down for protesting - I just think it only works with democratic and liberal governments. Autocrats tend to either ignore or destroy protests.

I admire their willingness to voice themselves, but am unsure whether they are naive enough to think it will do any good.

It goes along with an article I was reading today at work about Egypt. It gave a brief history of Islamic radicalism, which was born in Egypt in the 1920s. Nasser suppressed the radicals (killing Qutb, one of intellectual founders of modern day Islamic radicalism). When Sadat came to power he tried to promote a moderate secular state (versus Nasser's Nationalistic agenda)- he allowed for the freedom of religious expression, even for the radicals. And he also wanted peace and to recognize Israel. He did both of these things. What happened? An Islamic radical assassinated him. Doesn't seem fair does it? I wonder where the world would be now had Sadat and Egypt modernized and been a model, like Turkey. Or even, possibly, an Islamic nation that respected the rights of minority groups. Either or, Egypt is the historical leader of the Arab world and carries great weight. Too bad they have a dumb thug, Mubareck, leading them for the past 20 years. I saw him on Larry King and seemed to me to have the IQ of a horse. Bush would kill him in a debate. Now that's saying a lot!

I guess the point is: protesting dictators and allowing freedom of "expression" when expression is defined by violence not only are not useful, but somewhat morally reckless. When in a position of power, ie in the Congress, and you don't use that power to prevent harm to others, I think you are being reckless.

Say someone is being assaulted in an alley. If a policeman watched the assault and started yelling "Hey, stop doing that!" to the attacker, and the attacker didn't stop...I don't think the policeman should continue to shout, "Stop doing that!" Not only is it useless, but irresponsible, and morally wrong.

That last paragraph will give some fodder to those who find it condescending to think of the US as the global police force...those tend to be the same people who complain the first time something bad happens somewhere anywhere and yell, "Why didn't the US do anything!" It's all about the oil.