Apparently Glenn Beck has finally fallen off of the cliff so badly that even neocon warmongers like Robert Kagan have had enough of him. Sadly not quite badly enough for CNN's resident hack John King to pretend like there was still some question about whether Beck's recent rants are anything short of crazy out and out fear mongering with the way he framed this portion of the segment.
KING: This is from a rival news network. It is something that I would describe, this is my opinion, as out there a little bit. It's Glenn Beck yesterday. He's standing in front of a map and he is essentially saying Egypt will fall, the Islamists will seize power and there will be a domino effect not only across the Middle East, but Glenn Beck's conjecture is that it could go further. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BECK: Now what is happens? You move over to Asia and you grab the ones, once this domino starts to fall, and the Muslims start to see, oh, my gosh, we might from a caliphate. We might be able to have Islam imposed and Sharia law all over the globe. You start to lose all of Asia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Michele, to you first, any scenario in which you see anything like that possibly coming out of this?
DUNNE: I think the Muslim Brothers are going to play a role in the political future of Egypt and I -- but I don't see any kind of a radical Islamist takeover. Let's not forget. The Egyptian army are there and the Egyptian judiciary is there. There are some pillars of the system that have not fallen and will no necessarily fall with Mubarak. They show no signs of falling. So there are institutions, and so forth in Egypt to prevent a radical takeover. But, you know, I would also say this, I mean, what's the alternative scenario? You know, what should the United States be doing? Are we supposed to -- you know, this train is moving down the track, change is happening in Egypt. Should we throw ourselves in front of it just to try to stop the Muslim Brothers from getting into parliament? I mean it's just a totally unrealistic scenario. The idea that somehow the United States should stop political change, and should do what it can to deny political rights and human rights to 85 million Egyptians, you know, because we're concerned about the Muslim Brotherhood.
KING: Is what you just saw, is that alarmist? Is it extreme?
KAGAN: Of course, it's panic-mongering of the worst kind. It's not the first time in American history that kind of panic mongering has played well on TV or in the press. But I hope that people who have some sobriety and some good sense won't look at a map like that and think that India, which I noticed was colored in, was about to become part of an Islamic caliphate. That shows a profound ignorance of India, as well as the rest of the world.
I think we need to be intelligent about how we move forward. Not be guided by panic about some global Islamic takeover. And, in fact, that kind of panic leads to the worst kind of policies.
KING: Bob Kagan, Michele Dunne, appreciate your insights.
