civilian non-military government is going to spring out of nowhere is really a very dangerous notion. democracy is not decided by how many demonstrators you turn out in public squares, it's decided in elections. once you vary from that principle, you're really taking a huge risk. jon: president obama and the white house shocked a lot of people back in the spring when they essentially said hosni mubarak has to go. well, he's gone. is this a case, this result, a case of being careful what you wish for or what you ask for? >> well, exactly. i think we have got more instability in egypt, i think the camp david accords with israel and geopolitical stability in the middle east as a whole are more in danger. our arab allies in the gulf region in particular think that we threw mubarak under the bus, so their confidence in our leadership has declined. i mean, all in all, the united states and its friends, i think, are in a worse position. and what's ironic about these