mubarak has to go. immediately. the first step if we need to get out of this mess and it s total mess, security is terrible, it s a total chaos situation. first step he has to go. traditionally in egypt, have always been friends with the u.s. friends with europe and our country. richard haass, first of all, is he right, mubarak has to go and secondly, what is the fine ball ans of people in the country? richard haass, first of all, is he right? mubarak has to go and secondly, what is the fine ball and the white house needs to strike? i think mubarak has to go. he s lost with the chinese would call the mandate of heaven and the military, the last remaining important institution in egypt will lose its legitimacy if it s killing egyptians in the name of preserving mubarak. the united states, we have to be careful here. we can t simply walk away from a close ally of 30 years. we can t send a message that as soon as people come out in the
transition to a more responsive government in egypt. according to the white house, obama has sought input from european and middle eastern officials and has told them that the u.s. is focused on opposing violence and supporting broad democratic rights. and appearing on meet the press yesterday, hillary clinton also said mubarak must live up to the promises of reform. is the only way that mubarak stays in power for now is if he pledges he will not run and calls for fair elections? these issues are up to the egyptian people. they have to make these decisions. our position is very clear. we have urged for 30 years that there be a vice president and finally a vice president was announced just a day or two ago. are you calling upon egypt to call for free and fair elections and would you ask mubarak to say unequivocally that he will not run? we have been urging free and fair election for many years.
everyone recognizes is not really going to be a politician. you re not a politician if you use the word oxymoron on national television. he didn t even use it correctly. exactly. but he s trusted and he s respected by the west and he s pro-american. i remember when madeleine albright approved his name for the iaea for the watchdog atomic energy, because he was a knicks fan, he lived in new york. on the other hand he s been critical of the united states and the iraq war. he has some credibility in that part of the world. what you need is a figure like him, a transitional figure, to begin to negotiate with the military, with perhaps suleiman, the vice president, on a timetable for the departure of mubarak. once you have a date for mubarak s departure, a commitment for him to go, i think you ll see this crisis ease up. how ironic that the same man that the united states government, the bush administration loathed in 2002
middle east. second of all, if you care about peace in the middle east about israel, egypt is the center piece of the modern middle east, it s peace with israel takes off the table a widespread regional war, arabs versus srlz. egypt has been a stalwart in the effort against global terrorism and al qaeda. let me tell you right there. is it safe to say at least on the margins, people may mindlessly see what s going on and see the corruption and see the fact that this has been a very oppressive leader, undemocratic, doing things that we hate as americans. but without thinking, isn t it safe to say that on the margins, mubarak has made americans safer at home when it comes to the war against terrorists? absolutely. this has been a policy that has worked. the tragedy to policy is that there wasn t a larger element of gradual reform.
2009, they would fire in iran. the security forces did fire on the people. and that s why you still have president ahmadinejad in power. the key question in all these so-called revolutions is what happens when the protesters won t stand down and troops from that country have to decide whether to fire on their own people. mubarak appears to have the support much the top levels of the military. he s an air force officer. he comes from that tradition. it wasn t an accident. you saw an f-16 flying over the protesters yesterday. and he has the support at the top. but what happens when those orders are given down? and as you said earlier, joe, i think the protesters appear to be smart enough to not provoke the military. they re befriendsing them and trying to prevent that kind of confrontation. i think we have all the elements of the solution here. we have an international figure like mohamed elbaradei who