US Navigates Egypt’s Turmoil With Eye on Military Role
US influence is at the margins of yet another turn of events.
US officials are concerned about the ousting of Mohammed Morsi as president of Egypt, as well they should be.
Every day is a new day in Egypt, which is facing another dramatic crossroads of an ongoing popular revolution. But of all the upheavals that characterize the Arab Spring, the revolution in Egypt has been the most comfortable — both politically and intellectually — for the Obama administration.
As the confrontation deepens between the Muslim Brotherhood and the de facto alliance between the “deep state” run by the military establishment and the popular movement, Washington remains warily confident that its core interests — Cairo's strategic alliance with Washington, Egypt's commitment to peaceful relations and coordination with Israel, wrapped in a reassuring cocoon of democracy, even of the revolutionary kind — can survive this revolutionary environment and remain secure.
At the Pentagon, one official observed that US relations with Egypt are based on security cooperation with the United States and Israel — neither of which are seen to be in danger. The continuing centrality of the Egyptian military in Egyptian affairs has been and remains at the heart of this relatively benign reflection on developments in Egypt.
