I watched -- and worked in the aftermath of -- the collapse of the Soviet empire in '89, '90, 91.
I tried to encourage, at the time, through my tenuous links in politics and policy, a dramatic response to help the Eastern European and Russian people shift to democracy, via a sort of Marshall Plan.
But alas, this was during Bush Sr.'s short tenure as president.
It was, at the time, the biggest missed opportunity in foreign policy I'd ever seen. We could have had their friendship forever. World unity was possible.
Instead, we let "the market" lead the way. And so the Mafia and the KGB took over.
We have a new opportunity.
For today, in Egypt, we need to keep the light hand we've shown so far.
But once the chaos has cleared, there will be a new opportunity.
Civil society is not simple. Civil society, especially after tyranny, is weak.
Egyptians are striving for a non-tyrannical government, one free from fear of the torture chambers of the secret service, one that is not crony crisis capitalism, but a government for, by, and of the people.
It is non-trivial for the US to walk the tightrope, given the distrust of Western/American interests sown by the US's last 30 years of support of Mubarak.
But our challenge as a country, and as a philosophy of government, is how we work with the Egyptian people -- and help their culture find their own strengths, their own means of finding civil society, in their own way. We can't try to make them Americans -- but we can help them find their Egyptian solutions, and help them learn from the successes and failures of the Soviet meltdown.
Bring in those who have had experience in revolution, to Cairo. Let Egyptians ask them questions, get their perspective, and adapt it to Egyptian culture. Underwrite the sharing of experience, from Poland, Czech/Slovak, Ukraine, Latvia, and more. Let former revolutionaries have the travel funds to help the Egyptian revolutionaries.
If we leave it to "the market" to determine what develops from this revolution in the next six months, then the big money will manipulate the instability to maximize shareholder value.
That rarely serves the people. We need to participate, while not directing; facilitate, but not dictate. Listen, and be prepared to react.
If we want to learn from previous revolutions, we must take that choice -- and actively enable previous revolutionaries to share their experiences in trying to devise a civil society from the charred remains of a dictatorship.
It can be done. We can learn from experience.