Actually, he's dead right on Egypt. We didn't know what the outcome was going to be. Had we backed Mubarack and he lost, it would have been like Iran in 1979 when we were associated with the Shah after he went down. Had we sided with the demonstrators and they lost, it would have been like Cheney coming out in favor of the anti-Chaez coup before we knew whether it had suceeded. It pissed everyone of our Latin American allies off and made us look like idiots. Likewise, the regimes charges that the protestors were all funded by foriegn interests would have gained traction. Diplomacy is best conducted behind closed doors, and sometimes saying nothing of substance is the best course of action. This isn't a defense of BO per say, I just really can't see any other viable approach we could have taken.
FQ13