egypt and who should have known, i am really not interested in it. i wrote a lot about egypt trying to underline the troubles of the mubarak regime. it's really not about this debate in washington. it's really about this revolution in egypt and whether we go and embrace it and proclaim it and accept it as a legitimate revolution that a free people are entitled to. >> david, it's a difficult situation for the obama administration. given the history with egypt, the american support of the mubarak regime for 30 years, how in your opinion have they been playing this, mixed messages or have they been consistent? >> they've had lots of mixed messages. they were very wobbly in the beginning, anderson, i must say they did not see it coming, nor did any other major government that i'm aware of. certainly in international forum ten days ago, there was widespread belief that nobody saw this coming. so the americans couldn't be blamed for that.