[r9etb]

Mubarak is as "moderating" as you're likely to get, over there. Would you rather replace him with a salamikaze fundamentalist?

[adam_az]

Actually, yes, because the net result would be a more actionable situation.

Mubarak is a two-faced, lying dictator.

US military aid would not continue to an openly fundamentalist Egyptian government.

Israel would be able to take a much more deterrent stance.

Europe would take a strong stance against a fundamentalist Egypt that restricted access to the canal.

A fundamentalist Egyptian regime wouldn't last that long, and the fallout of it's collapse would might in fact just be better than the status quo at the moment, a possibility that you hadn't considered.

The real problem is that Mubarak is going to soon die ANYWAY and there is no clear successor, so we don't know what will come after him, anyhow. The REAL problem is that we've been supporting this dictator out of the expectations that Arabs aren't capable of anything better. The old "soft bigotry of low expectations" redux.