Andrew J. Bacevich: Arab Uprising: The U.S. Must Take a Nonviolent Stance

Andrew J. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and the author of Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War.

As Arab dominoes teeter and topple, Washington finds itself caught on the horns of a dilemma. Where should America place its bets? Which is more likely to serve U. S. interests: propping up the existing order or trying something new? Sticking with the familiar or taking a flyer on change?

Thus far, the Obama administration has tried to split the difference, favoring the removal of nasty autocrats except where it doesn't. As a result, loudly proclaimed moral arguments provide a rationale for hammering Moammar Kadafi's Libya with airstrikes; tacitly understood prudential considerations require giving Bahrain's King Hamed ibn Isa Khalifa a pass....

Can the United States formulate a response to the Arab uprising that reconciles the moral with the prudential — a strategy producing positive outcomes consistent with conscience rather than just digging deeper holes? The answer is yes; indeed, such an approach is staring us in the face. Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had a name for it: nonviolence — the conviction that principled civil resistance can ultimately prevail against even sustained brutality....