it is a fitting tribute to people like gerry ferraro and richard holbrooke and chuck manatt. they liked opposed difficult questions and then push us to answer them. meanthard's case, that even falling meat into a ladies room and pakistan one time. -- following me into a ladies room in pakistan one time. [laughter] we approach these questions with a large dose of humility, because many of the choices ahead are honestly not ours to make. still, it is worth stepping back and looking to what directly is on people's minds. but we start with one question i hear often. do we really believe that democratic change in the middle east and north africa is in america's interest? that is a totally fair question. after all, transitions are still with uncertainty. they can be chaotic, unstable, even violent. and even if they succeed, they are rarely linear, quick, or easy. as we saw in the balkans and again in iraq, rivalries between members of different religions, sects, and tribes can resurface and explode. toppling tyrants does not guarantee that democracy will follow or that it will last

it's a fitting tribute to people like gerry ferraro and richard holbrooke and chuck manatt. they liked to pose difficult questions and then push us to answer them. and in richard's case, that meant even following me into a ladies' room in pakistan one time. as we live this history day by day, we approach these questions with a large dose of humility, because many of the choices ahead are, honestly, not ours to make. still, it's worth stepping back and doing our best to speak directly to what is on people's minds. so let me start with one question i hear often: do we really believe that democratic change in the middle east and north africa is in america's interest? that is a totally fair question. after all, transitions are filled with uncertainty. they can be chaotic, unstable, even violent. and, even if they succeed, they are rarely linear, quick, or easy. as we saw in the balkans and again in iraq, rivalries between members of different religions, sects, and tribes can resurface and explode. toppling tyrants does not guarantee that democracy will follow, or that it will la