even though we are not seeing the celebration that we see in tunisia, they feel an opigation and sense that they are sending a clear message to the military that the old order is there to feel empowered. given the importance of egypt and particularly it s peaceful with israel. is it fair to say that the whole world needs a stable egyptian democracy? we teach our student at the universities that whatever egypt goes, the region follows. the most pivotal state in the arab world and the most populous state in the arab world and almost 90 million people. the capital of the cultural production. in the 1920s and 30s and 40s, egypt was a parliamentary system. in the 1950s and 1960s, the
whereby the announcement there by president saleh. this is we re watching sort of the almost preemption domino effect, as if they re trying to prevent this chaos that we re seeing on the streets. what do you make of that? that s exactly right. dominoes can go in one direction and they can go in another direction. clearly, these leaders were on the defensive over the course of certainly the last week but certainly since the beginning of the tunisian situation, watching it carefully and nervously. and marshalling their forces and devising the strategy in order to deal with unrest. these leaders are not going to go quietly. it is a fantasy to believe that they can be disarmed peacefully. this is, as i said, a major turn for egypt. and as egypt goes, you can be sure that president saleh of yemen, the president of algeria, the syrian president, jordanian
over the years, the fact that the united states has been pushing and will continue to push for the rights of the egyptian people, and i think it s time for the u.s. very, very soon, perhaps after sending an envoy to see mubarak, to see that the transition has to include president mubarak s departure. it is amazing in these situations, words have such consequences, are so important how you craft your statements from the perspective of the u.s. but looking from the u.s. perspective, this isn t just about egypt. it s about the region. how important is egypt and what happens in this situation to the stability in that region? well, two factors. number one, egypt is seen as a kind of bellwether for the entire arab world, given the length of its civilization, the cosmopolitan nature of cairo, and given the size, 80 million people, egypt as egypt goes, people see the arab world going. so if there is a democratic
affect most egypt countries. egypt, alex, i don t need to remind you, is the most pivotal, most populist arab state. if egypt goes, the entire arab world goes. egypt historically has affected cultural and political and social development throughout the arab world. even though tunisia provided the trigger that ignited the political violence, the crisis itself is structural. the crisis has been with us for many, many years. i mean, think about it. egypt is a country of 82 million people. 43% of egyptians live either in poverty or below the poverty line. president mubarak has been in power for 30 years. millions of egyptians wait hours every day to get six loaves of bread, subsidized loaves of bread. the institutional infrastructure of egypt has been really decimated. what i mean, regardless of whether president mubarak
and if egypt goes, if egypt is unstable, does anybody in the region win? many would say maybe iran is not unhappy. to see egypt in turmoil and a key. i would suspect that it would take a lot to turn egypt into real chaos and crisis. egypt is the oldest state in the arab world. it is one of the oldest states in the world. egypt is one of the few states in the world, egypt, iran, that have continuous borders from 5,000 bc. an old state. this is the pharoah s state. even if you have change, don t be surprised a year or two later the same bureaucrats are running a lot of what s going on in egypt. i don t think you will have the kind of chaos that people fear. it may have a different government, it may have populist tendencies, it may have islamist