Niall Ferguson wrote this week's scathing Newsweek cover story about how badly Obama butchered Egypt.

Yesterday he went on Morning Joe to discuss, and the clip of his scornful appraisal (and Mika's sort of disbelief) went wide.

This morning Morning Joe had on roundtable regular Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski -- former national security adviser to Jimmy Carter (and Mika's dad) -- to see what Obama should have done but didn't.

Turns out Brzezinksi doesn't think the Obama administration had much to to with anything...Al Jazeera was the star player where Egypt was concerned. So far.

Look, first of all, we don't know how this is going to turn out. So let's be very careful, whether it's a triumph or a massive setback. We just don't know. so it's dangerous to make a judgment. secondly, the fact is the United States and the White House weren't all that central to the events in Egypt. They were precipitated to some extent by the intense and very skillful coverage given to the events by Al Jazeera. That really was very significant. And secondly, by the dissemination of American technology, the internet and so forth, which has attracted the attention and the commitment of young people who used it very effectively. we really weren't that central to these events.

Good thing Obama was tuned in, I guess. Video below.

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