Edge and muscle

Bob Rae considers the events in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and Iran.

We need to develop a more effective strategy to deal with this brutality and repression.  The promotion of human rights and democracy needs some edge and some muscle.  More help to those willing to fight the fight, more consequences for regimes unwilling to change.  It is not easy to craft such a strategy, because democracy can never be seen as a foreign import, but the reality of real engagement by a courageous people can’t be met with only goodwill, let alone indifference.