Changing gods in Egypt - Los Angeles Times

Changing gods in Egypt - Los Angeles Times
When Mubarak goes (he is 78), Egypt could become another Iran. Like Iran, Egypt is a friend, sort of, of the US (the Shah was a much better friend, if truth be told), and Egypt's leadership succession problem pits us between leftist democratic reformists and the Muslim Brotherhood, with Mubarak's son, a modernist capitalist (formerly worked for Bank of America), thrown into the mix as a third choice. The first two choices look very much like Iran did upon the fall of the Shah -- Jimmy Carter backing the democracy movement believing that the moderates and leftists would take control, only to see the religious radicals dominate in short order. If history repeats itself in Egypt, it will completely destabilize the Middle East (yes, it could become less stable) and become a major defeat to us in our multi-generational war against Islamist extremism.