Egypt

Great stuff going on in Egypt.  That doesn't mean it's going to end great, mind you, but it's exciting right now, that's for sure.

Lots of fear coming from some quarters (particularly on the Right and among some pro-Israel groups) that the Muslim Brotherhood is going to take over and lead Egypt right out of the Sadat-Begin peace treaty and into war with Israel.  Now this fear is legitimate, but it sounds like (from what I'm reading) there are plenty of secular and liberal forces likely to take power. 

Here's the thing: dictators don't last forever.  They always die eventually, and their heirs usually don't carry on for too many generations before a revolution or at least a coup bubbles up.  This Egypt regime was going down pretty soon (Mubarek is in his 80s, after all), and there were so many possible ways it could have gone down- this way seems as good an outcome as many.

In the end, this isn't about us.  The United States has nothing to do with this uprising.  Any meddling (except behind the scenes, but we'll never know about that) would have just empowered the bad guys in this, and I think Obama's passivity in the face of the Tahir Square protests was proven to be the right course.  Sometimes our best option is to get out of the way and let nature take its course.  How fascinating that the neocons' vision of a democratic Middle East might come to pass after all, due to internal Arab protest rather than overwhelming US military force.  Who would've thunk it?