US pledges support for Arab Spring nations

Hillary Clinton

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday defended US support for Arab Spring nations as "a strategic necessity," vowing never to retreat amid a firestorm over the attack on a US mission in Libya.
"We will not return to the false choice between freedom and stability. And we will not pull back our support for emerging democracies when the going gets rough," Hillary told a US think tank.
"That would be a costly strategic mistake that would, I believe, undermine both our interests and our values."
She acknowledged that "diplomacy, by its nature, has to be often practiced in dangerous places," in her speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Weeks before the revolution in Egypt against longtime leader Hosni Mubarak broke out in January 2011, Hillary said she had warned Arab leaders at a meeting in Doha that the "region's foundations were sinking into the sand."
"It was clear even then that the status quo was unsustainable. That refusal to change was itself becoming a threat to stability," Hillary said.
"So for the United States, supporting democratic transitions is not a matter of idealism. It is a strategic necessity."
But she cautioned that "achieving genuine democracy and broad-based growth will be a long and difficult process.
"It is way too soon to say how these transitions will play out. But what's not in doubt is that America has a big stake in the outcome," she added.