this is a transcript of Hugh Hewitt's discussion with Mark Steyn on Hewitt's radio show tonight. They discuss egypt and the turmoil in the middle east and America's role going forward.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/transcripts.aspx?id=caf7a8ff-423c-4869-a4b9-9b04c5faf58b
HH: I begin this hour with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. You can read all of Mark’s epic amount of work at www.steynonline.com. Mark, as you look out at what’s going on in Bahrain and Libya, how far is this going to travel, and what is your general assessment of good, bad or indifferent for the United States?
MS: Well, I think it depends obviously on the willingness of the regime to kill people in order to stay in power. In the case of Egypt, which was an unlovely regime, it was what you might call unlovely in an easy listening sense. Like the Shah of Iran, Mubarak and his army were not prepared to fire on the people in Tahrir Square. Now if it had happened in Damascus, I think Assad and his truly ugly dictatorship there would have no compunction about firing on people, and killing and murdering and slaughtering large numbers of people. So I think the vulnerability of the regime depends in a sense on how benign it is. I’ve got no use for Bahrain and the Gulf states, and those ugly Gulf monarchies. But like the Hashemites in Jordan, they’re the most vulnerable, because they’re the least likely to fire on the people.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/transcripts.aspx?id=caf7a8ff-423c-4869-a4b9-9b04c5faf58b
HH: I begin this hour with Columnist To the World, Mark Steyn. You can read all of Mark’s epic amount of work at www.steynonline.com. Mark, as you look out at what’s going on in Bahrain and Libya, how far is this going to travel, and what is your general assessment of good, bad or indifferent for the United States?
MS: Well, I think it depends obviously on the willingness of the regime to kill people in order to stay in power. In the case of Egypt, which was an unlovely regime, it was what you might call unlovely in an easy listening sense. Like the Shah of Iran, Mubarak and his army were not prepared to fire on the people in Tahrir Square. Now if it had happened in Damascus, I think Assad and his truly ugly dictatorship there would have no compunction about firing on people, and killing and murdering and slaughtering large numbers of people. So I think the vulnerability of the regime depends in a sense on how benign it is. I’ve got no use for Bahrain and the Gulf states, and those ugly Gulf monarchies. But like the Hashemites in Jordan, they’re the most vulnerable, because they’re the least likely to fire on the people.
