I don't think words about democracy would have any bearing on protests in Egypt and elsewhere. Young people there are fed up with unemployment, corruption, and abuse of power. It may be obvious to us that the fix to those things is democracy, but not everybody agrees. It is not clear what the protesters want, even if those who speak for them speak of democracy. Do the protesters want a different form of government, or do they want to be ruled undemocratically by a decent, benevolent regime? Once again, it seems obvious to us that it is foolish to hope for such a thing, but people across the world have placed their faith in that hope for thousands of years, and even in the United States, more people are concerned with the need to elect "good" politicians who can be trusted than in pushing for transparency and accountability.
Edit: Actually I am completely baffled that the author of that article refers to these protests as "democracy movements." It seems like a very narcissistic assumption for Americans to make. These protests may be revolts against corrupt and repressive governments, but so was the revolution in Iran in 1979.
Reminds me of a Raymond Smullyan quip about a friend on road-trips with his girlfriend and her young daughter. When it came down to deciding where the three of them would eat, there was often a difference of opinion -- the daughter always wanted McDonald's while the adults wanted to sample the local cuisine. One time, he proposed to decide by voting. The daughter decried: "That's not fair! I'd lose!"
I suspect the US government is afraid of the results of fair elections in Egypt.
I don't think it shows hypocrisy. To my mind, the US foreign policy is more predictable assuming that the US is self-interested and relatively unprincipled. If the opposition in any foreign dispute shows more likelihood of being friendly to US interests than the incumbent, then the US will support them - perhaps even use "democracy" as an excuse; but if the opposition may not be as friendly, then the US will oppose it, publicly (e.g. Venezuela) or more obliquely (Egyptian military aid).
What was Al Jazeera's take on potential American encouragement of the protests in Iran? Where they demanding that Obama use his bully pulpit to make a strong case for the protesters?
