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The Opinion Pages

Letter
Mubarak Needs to Man-Up
Published: February 1, 2011

To the Editor:

Re: “Bye, Bye, Mubarak" (column, Jan. 25):

Kudos to Maureen Dowd for giving credit where credit is due. To me.

Of the ongoing protests in my home country, she writes: "Egyptians rose up at the greatest irony of all: Cleopatra’s Egypt was modern in ancient times and Mubarak’s was ancient in modern times."

Cor-rect, Maureen. She goes on to point out how W.'s misguided efforts to establish democracy led him right back to these obnoxious tyrants, etc., etc., but the most salient point in her article is about me, the former Queen of Egypt.

By "modern," Ms. Dowd surely means my legendary, forward-thinking tenacity in the circumstance of a power struggle. No doubt she also has in mind the fact that I took defeat like a man. No family members boo-hooing all the way to London.

No way! We did everything in awe-inspring style, with a big clay mug of beer in one hand, and an asp in the other.

Cleopatra, former Queen of Egypt
The Afterlife
February 1, 2011