Eyeball Egypt!

Watch Egypt! Your future may well depend on what happens there in the next several days. Tricky stuff, dealing with despots in the Middle East.

Mubarak is our guy, but only because there is no other. Never forget, however, that a great deal of his rigidity stems from his need to suppress The Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt gave birth to the Muslim Brotherhood, and it was the Egyptian Said Qutb who made their preachings lethal. The Saudis went on to fund this extremism with their new oil money, and,you might well say, from that came, ultimately, Osama Ben Laden. We have depended on Mubarak to suppress the Brotherhood, and now there are crowds in the streets, tear gas and police action.

Tunisia just rose up and threw out a despot. The excitement, innocently or not, spread to Egypt. It is impossible not to side with the ordinary citizen whose life has been damaged by Mubarak's heavy handed rule. But the threat to us in this instability is huge. Lurking in those crowds are the Brothers, organized and more than ready to steal this rebellion and impose a strict Sharia-based despotism of their own.

Hillary Clinton is urging Mubarak to bring reforms. So the dance begins! Our stake in this is clear to her, clear to me, and must be clear to you. So eyeball Egypt, hold your breath, and pray.

The stability of the entire Middle East is now in question.