[bioh42_2]

Destabilizing Egypt could destabilize the entire area.

This is quite the statement. To me personally shocking, but sadly not shocking in general.

Allow me to rephrase:

We must hold an entire nation hostage to a brutal and incompetent dictator, otherwise who knows what their foreign policy will be.

My reply to that is, what gives anyone the right to trade other people's rights, freedoms, and frequently even lives, for hypothetical political fallout?

Doe Egypt have enough nukes to end the world? Do they have any nukes?

Are we sure another regime will be worse? How much worse? What's the worst that could happen realistically? Is us completely betraying our own American ideals of truth, justice and freedom for all, worth it?

[knowtheory]

As i stated below, i do not buy into the false dichotomy you and many others keep asserting.

It is naïve to not ask what the potential outcomes will be to toppling Mubarak, especially if one cares about about human rights.

This is the exact same sort of reasoning that Neo-cons used for why Iraq should be invaded, damn the consequences! Is Iraq a better place? Has the lot of Iraqis improved? If you believe it has, at what cost in terms of lives and treasure?

[Qz]

The difference there of course is that the Iraqis were not in open revolt at the time. Whether or not that was due to how much more insane of a dictator Hussein was I leave as an open question.