It's like it always is: when freedom is advantageous, they'll believe in it. I would hope they're not quite so crass as to oppose freedom in the middle east currently simply because Obama could take credit for it, but they would at least oppose it if they feel it will cause nations to go further from the US orbit. Certainly we saw that quandary rear its ugly head in Kyrgyzstan a while back, where the pro-US president refused to leave office for a while even though he was legitimately defeated by one of the pro-Russian party. Russia of course loved freedom in that instance, but we were hesitant to support the results of that election
Political and economic liberalization usually means a shift towards the US bloc, but who the hell knows? The only definitive spot of hope in all of this is that this in no way resembles Iran, largely because Mubarak was/is less blatantly western by a good stretch than the Shah was, and the current unrest in Egypt hasn't been co-opted by the radical Islamists yet. Certainly the brotherhood party is there, but their role in this so far has been merely as an opposition party, and has not yet evolved into one of an Islamist party, and neither are the people taking to the streets for Islam as they were in Iran in 79
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
