Policymakers and pundits now debate the right mix between realism and idealism. Too often, this is framed in a way to support democratization or not. It’s a bad dichotomy. AP is reporting that Egyptian police arrested Mohammed el-Sharkawi, 24, beat him and sodomized him after he held up a sign saying “Long Live Justice.” Sources in Egypt say the police have denied him medical care; he is reportedly near death. Yesterday in the Los Angeles Times, a colleague and I took the Bush administration to task for allowing the gap between rhetoric and actions to widen so far. It is this gap that most undercuts U.S. credibility and prestige. The Sharkawi case is the type of case which can help repair the U.S. image abroad. It costs nothing for the U.S. ambassador to visit Sharkawi or for the White House to issue a statement such as it did for Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji. Perhaps Mubarak wouldn’t be so bold if our recent actions weren’t so impotent, or if Foggy Bottom hadn’t received his son and anointed successor like a visiting potentate. Now is the time for Bush to show Egypt–home of one out of every three Arabs–that he is serious when he speaks about freedom. Let the Fourth Estate to bash America first; Bush should lead.