This is a rush transcript from "The Five," September 13, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In America, think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a king. Or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat.
So it was in Tunisia, hundreds of protesters took to the streets, then thousands. In the face of batons and sometimes bullets, they refused to go home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: That was President Obama on May of last year comparing the
Arab Spring to the American Revolution and the civil rights movement. In the same speech, the president used examples of democratic movement taking place in Middle East.
Listen to the cities he mentioned. It's a good set up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: In Cairo, we heard the voice of the young mother who said it's like I can finally breathe fresh air for the first time.
In Sana'a, we heard the students who chanted, "The night must come to an end."
In Benghazi, we heard the engineer who said, "Our words are free now. It's a feeling you can't explain."
Those shouts of human dignity are being heard across the region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BECKEL: Now, because a percentage of people in the cities he mentioned attacked the embassy and consulates, that reflection of Obama was similar reflection by most people in the United States because they were getting rid of dictators, and people that we -- that literally slaughtered people, like Mubarak and like Qaddafi.
And yet, today, I hear people say we want to go to the good old days of slaughter and dictators. Is that how you --
DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Well, wait, what about Syria?
BECKEL: Well, Syria, they should be gone. He's a slaughterer and a dictator.
PERINO: I know, but those people are fighting for freedom and we don't help them. Maybe behind the scenes but certainly not very well.
ERIC BOLLING, CO-HOST: By the way, the jury is still out. Mark Levin, a good friend, a great one, made a comment, right around that time -- he said, wait to see what the Brotherhood and Mohamed Morsi, they're going to make Mubarak look like Mother Teresa. We don't know. We don't know what that -- if he is going to end up being --
BECKEL: Call for free and open elections in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood won. That's just too bad. That's democracy. We have to live with that. They have a right to elect who they want to elect.
PERINO: True.
BOLLING: They won but the original vote had 25 percent. They won in a run off.
BECKEL: That happens in places like that. Look, what is the alternative? You want a dictator to come in and take over?
BOLLING: No, what about real democracy?
BECKEL: That's real democracy.
GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: It's not about the leaders. It's about a religion. I mean, we can talk about all the dictators we want, but the fact is that dictators were there in part because they were trying to control a religion. And now the religion is out and about.
They've got to change the name. Arab Spring sounds like delightful deodorant. They got to call it like Arab Scary Meltdown Pukefest. Something awful.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, CO-HOST: My God. It is kind of "Nightmare on Elm Street."
PERINO: That could be a contest to hold.
GUTFELD: Arab Winter.
GUILFOYLE: We can't pat ourselves on the back and say it's better off. It isn't. You want to be honest and shine light on it and transparent. Mubarak was far better off than what is there now. Sorry to tell you that.
BECKEL: If you want to get to the essence of this, did we or did we not want democratic elections in the Middle East? We did. We didn't get a big role. Out of Gaza, we got Hamas. Out of Egypt, we got the Muslim Brotherhood. That's the process of democracy.
They went to the polls and clearly voted that way.
BOLLING: That's a good analogy, though. We get Hamas running Palestine now. You have the Muslim Brotherhood running Egypt. What a bargain that turned out to be.
BECKEL: What's the a alternative? Don't let them vote?
BOLLING: I'm not saying not let them vote. Careful what you wish for.
PERINO: One of the things that United States could give them help these leaders become better leaders and to give them suggestion on what to say and how to act and how to lead their people.
Tomorrow, the Muslim Brotherhood called for a protest. It's a protest over the stupid film that exists or doesn't exist earlier. Not a protest over the overreaction of extremists who killed one of the ambassadors in Libya and set fire to the flag in front of Egypt. A leader would have said knock it off, go home. Try to get yourself a job or start a business. That's one thing that the State Department can do. Maybe they are trying to do it behind the scenes but they haven't told us much of what they are doing after Arab Spring.
GUILFOYLE: But it's not working because the campaign in Vegas and apologizing and then handing out cash while people cut our hands off. It's absolutely ridiculous. This is not working at all.
We are not in a better position. Pakistan is a disaster. Our relationship with Israel is badly damaged. He doesn't have time for Netanyahu.
I mean, this whole philosophy is so skewed and so problematic. We are in a far worse position I believe than we have ever been in at this point.
BECKEL: What is your alternative?
GUILFOYLE: A new president.
BECKEL: Leave that aside right now.
GUILFOYLE: That is the solution. They have markedly different philosophies and platforms how to deal with foreign policy and America's position in the world versus withdrawal, retreat and telegraph when we take out troops, compromising our position in Afghanistan and any gains that we have made.
Oh, good job.
BECKEL: That's absolutely --
GUILFOYLE: Ridiculous Gallup poll.
BECKEL: Greg said is exactly right. Dictators were in power, in Iran, in Libya, in Egypt to keep down the Muslims. That's what they were doing. When they were gone, the Muslims, from frustration was finally blowing up and went to the polls.
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