I guess, how has your thinking changed over this period? How do you kind of grapple with this moment?

Well, I mean...

I think what we saw in some places was a fierce counter-revolution.

I would characterize what happened in Egypt as a counter-revolution.

One can ask the question, and I think some of those superb scholars of the Egyptian military, like Bob Springborg, have looked at, did the Egyptian military ever really move away from its position as the power behind the throne in Egypt? No, it never did.

You know, even when Egypt had its first democratically elected president, the military still was there.

And ultimately when they decided that Mohammed Morsi was no longer something, someone they were willing to tolerate, they carried out a coup and they did it with support from other States in the region who did not like the outcomes of the Arab uprisings and the instability and that kind of revolution succeeded.

So how do we prioritize and what role do you want the U.S. to play in the Middle East, especially because there are voices who say the U.S. should not play a role in any of this?