Let us hope that Egypt doesn’t replace a tyrant with a terrorist

WATCHING pictures on television of a dictator getting his ass whipped — especially when he is one who has been raping his country’s finances for 30 years — is always a visceral pleasure.

But before we get carried away with the mounting euphoria in Egypt it’s probably wise to rein in our enthusiasm and play out the likely consequences first.

With protests — revolutionary protests — gripping the streets from Tunisia to Egypt to Yemen, the Arab world is in unprecedented turmoil. From the point of view of those of us who support a widening of democracy and freedom, the outcomes could range from disastrous (creating the next Afghanistan or Lebanon) to the barely tolerable (creating a relatively stable but dictatorial situation, as Egypt has been), to something as close to good as it gets in that region (perhaps Jordan).