Newt Gingrich says there are "no good guys available for us to back" in Egypt, and America would be better off with a military-backed government than the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
"None of us are particularly happy with a military coup, but a military coup from an American perspective may be the least dangerous and most positive thing that could happen," Gingrich said Thursday on CNN's "Piers Morgan Live."
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, said the situation was similar to when the United States helped get rid of the Shah of Iran in 1978-79. Despite warnings the Ayotolla Khomeini would take over, a U.S. general met with the Iranian generals and asked them not to intervene for 60 days. Once the rebellion got too hot, the Carter administration asked the generals to take over, but they said it was too late. A few months later, Clark said, they were dead.
The White House refuses to call the military takeover of Egypt's first elected president a coup because U.S. law would force a cutoff of military aid.
"But that shouldn't lead the president to lie or dissemilate (cq) about what's happening," Gingrich added. "It ought to lead the president to say to Congress, this is a provision that doesn't work. It's destructive of American interest, and the Congress ought to repeal it."
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