If Mubarak didn't let Egypt be a democracy for the LAST THIRTY YEARS...

[Ken Burch]

Why does ANYONE think he'd allow real elections this fall if he stayed on until then?

Isn't it time for EVERYONE to admit that Mubarak was NEVER a "benign despot" and that "benign despotism" never actually existed?

Face reality, people.

Keeping the Tsar in power(or even that pathetic mediocrity Kerensky) wouldn't ever have made Russia a democracy.

Keeping the Shah in power(or even that pathetic Kerensky imitator Shapour Bahktiar, the one who wouldn't promise that the Shah would never come back to powe) wouldn't ever have made Iran into a democracy.

Yes, those countries had bad outcomes but there were no better outcomes that could have come from preserving the status quo and keeping discredited leaders in power against the will of the populations of those countries.

Tyrants never STOP being tyrants.

Mubarak has to go...and we HAVE to support the Egyptian people in wanting him gone NOW!

This isn't rocket science.

[PCIntern]

1. True, but

look at the "transition" governments in the USSR and (still in) Iran...

Tee-riffic!

[Ken Burch]

2. You didn't read my OP

I acknowledged that there were bad outcomes in those countries, but the status quo COULDN'T have been preserved anyway. There was no way to have saved the Tsar or the Shah even if saving them had been a good thing...and there was no way that saving them COULD have led to a good result.