United States involvement in the Middle East goes back decades; it is a complicated tale of American idealism, strategic interests and the use of military power. As World War II ended, the United States became a great power in the Middle East, with only two main concerns. Strangely, even though the main concern is oil, we don’t even get most of it from the Middle East, it comes from Canada. We’ve propped up oppressive presidents and monarchs in exchange for oil and peace with Israel.

Hosni Mubarak was a dictator who brutally suppressed the will of his people, but he was our dictator who brutally suppressed the will of his people. Could it be possible that America lends support to foreign leaders for selfish and self-serving motives like the obtainment of oil, and not for democracy or human rights? What has the decades of being in and out of the Middle East gotten us? In terms of money spent, lives lost and moral authority wasted, Americans have paid a lot and gotten little in return.

It now turns out that those efforts were unnecessary. Because for about ten years, the U.S. has been pushing in on a door that only opens outward. Events of the last several weeks have made it abundantly clear that not only are important parts of the Islamic world ready for change, but the force for change comes from within. Transformation is not something that outsiders can induce or impose or control.

Muslims tired of living in squalor and the not so poor fed up with suffering under the heel of corrupt authoritarian regimes don’t need America’s coaching. They don’t need us to “liberate” them. They are perfectly capable of liberating themselves. What happened in Tunisia and Egypt was a mobilization of people who wanted to take a stand and speak out for themselves and for what they wanted. They did not go to a bigger power for help nor did they resort to acts of extremism. After years of oppression they finally said enough is enough. I think this is proof that revolutions can happen without the involvement of U.S. military or financial aid.

America should stop fighting other countries’ wars, stop paying their bills, and let the people determine their own future for good or bad. It isn’t up to America to determine what kind of society Egypt and the Middle East should become.