Explaining Mid-East Revolts, In Child's Terms

It has taken a few days for me to figure out exactly what is going on the the Mid-East, and frankly, I really still don't understand all the implications. However, when my daughter asked me what was going on in Egypt on TV I had to try to come up with an explanation.

In adult language:

In order to protect Israel, and by extension, ourselves, we have compromised our values (human rights and freedom) again and again in the Middle East.

It seems to avoid radical Islamic Theocracies from controlling the region, we have supported and encouraged secular military dictatorships to keep the region "stable".

But it is much more fun to use an analogy even kids could understand:

It's as if our buddy, Israel, was being bullied on the playground, by a big mean bully (Islamic Extremists). We didn't want to get our hands dirty by beating up the bully (our we might lose our precious oil), so we brought in our redneck cousin (secular military dictatorships). The cousin and the bully fought at every recess, allowing our buddy and ourselves to go about our business.

This arrangement worked for a while, but eventually, the other kids on the playground cried out that they didn't like our redneck cousin anymore. They decided to throw him off of the playground, by force if necessary.

We tried to stop them by saying, "Hey guys, we know our redneck cousin has been terrorizing you, but we have to keep him here, or the big mean bully will start picking on us again!"

But they had gotten sick of the redneck cousins abuse, "Better you than us, and who are you to tell us what to do anyway?", they said.

And really, who are we?

We are the biggest guy on the playground called the World. We believe in human rights, a Democratic Republic, the inherent equality of human beings, a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We believe in freedom of and from religion.

We cannot impose these beliefs on the rest of the world. However, if we think they are true, eventually they will triumph.

We have got to let well enough alone here. Let the Egyptian people decide for themselves. If the extremists prevail, the sane, rational, peace loving Egyptians will eventually get sick of them too, and rise up against them.

If we are attacked, we have the right to Self-Defense. We already retialiated against the perpetrators of 9/11. We must put that behind us and move forward.

We cannot let our fear allow us to continually compromise our values. Nor can we afford to police the entire Mid-East. We cannot support the Mubarak regime. We must withdraw our support for it. Mubarak will fall either way. We cannot, should not, and will not, interfere anymore.

We must wait, and watch, and only help when asked.

And someday, if the big mean bully starts acting up again, we are going to have to face him head on, and win the fight once and for all.