1. We did have 'some' influence over the MB largely because we control the purse strings that kept their gov. going.
2. US interests lie in the Gulf for two big reasons... OIL and IRAN (not Egypt)... Since Camp David, Egypt has pretty much just been the side-show that keeps Israel out of a broader regional conflict. Consequently, the Gulf States hatred of the MB is steering the our foreign policy.
3. With the MB, we only controlled about 1/2 the cards in Cairo... MB was playing games with DC too. Now we hold about 90% of the cards... cards which are tightly controlled in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi.
Shockingly ( 
) Egypt still doesn't have a government that can legitimately press for democracy... MB couldn't do it and definitely now the generals can't.
This week was a watershed... the level of violence was horrific. I can really only see two directions now. A second Egyptian revolution with the liberals AND the MB taking to the streets and tossing the generals. Or, something akin to civil war will take root... a slow festering insurgency.
My student who was killed this week covering the MB for her paper was both a democrat and a feminist... thought also a Muslim. She died trying to cover the massacre of the MB. In the ME, the situation is never simple and is almost always analyzed wrong by those 'experts' in the MSM.
Something is afoot in Egypt... the only thing I thing that is sure about it is there will still be more blood.
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