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Thought for the Day: Egypt vs. Pakistan | Center for a New American Security

It is worth noting, too, that even though the United States is getting a lot of blame from protesters on the streets of Cairo and Alexandria for our support for the Mubarak Regime through the years, the United States will likely be able to retain a great deal of influence in Egypt even in a post-Mubarak political landscape because of the way in which the U.S. military has kept up such close relations with its Egyptian counterparts. Egyptian officers have been coming to the United States for training for three decades now, so most high-ranking Egyptian officers have close friends in the U.S. military with whom they went to the War College or CGSC

I think it more worth noting that the flip side of this is that the longer the Egyptian Gov takes violent action, and the more the Army either waffles, or as I suspect, uses non-action as plausible deniability, the more America "owns" the blow-back.

During the Tunisia crisis I criticised the French for being mealy mouthed. The US is skirting the same behaviour.