Egypt: The West's Failed Policy.

"We appreciate the complexity of the situation...We recognise that change takes time. There are going to be false starts and difficult days. We know that democratic transitions are measured not in months or even years, but sometimes in generations.

While Mohamed Morsi was elected president in a democratic election, his government was not inclusive and did not respect the views of all Egyptians. We know that many Egyptians, millions of Egyptians, perhaps even a majority of Egyptians, were calling for a change in course."- President Obama

In the light of the the army's killing of MB street protesters, western politicians have to stop trotting out the line about democratic elections. It only gives vent to those claiming elections were all about the 'will of the people' as opposed to first having had a constitution accepted by a broad number of Egyptians beforehand.

The Arab Spring never blossomed. No new constitution was ratified in advance of the presidential election which is why even in the first run off the majority of Egyptians did not vote. In the second run off people had a choice of Mubarak's last prime minister and Morsi, whom few had ever even heard of before.

Obama's decision to cancel US military exercises with Egypt is only intended to signal that it disapproves of the manner in which the Egyptian security forces are dealing with the remnants of the Muslim Brotherhood's support on the streets of Cairo.

The coup is not a coup in Washington because if it were it could not legally send aid to Egypt to fund and train the security forces to preserve its interests. One of those is counter-terrorism so if the upshot of General Sisi's coup is to ramp up that threat then the US is hardly likely to want to suspend it.

The platitudes coming from US and EU envoys and diplomats prove that they want 'transition' but for it to be a smooth one. The Egyptian army do not give a damn about the wittering Lady Ashton's calls for the need for the need for the 'utmost restraint', the need for 'dialogue', 'inclusivity' and 'overcoming differences'.

From the outset of the so-called 'Arab Spring' of 2011, the army were firmly in control. Now the Egyptian army is claiming it is doing the sort of 'counter terrorism' operations it has been trained to enact for decades with the backing of the western powers.

The course was set for a showdown between the old regime and the Muslim Brotherhood ever since the army dissolved the Egyptian Parliament in July 2012. US and EU diplomats had little or nothing to say about that. But it meant that any future president would rule without a democratically mandated constitution.

Ultimately, neither the US nor the EU are going to let Egypt slide into chaos and it depends on the army it has backed since the 1970s being there to do so. SCAF knows that and knows that the Gulf States, which supply the oil the EU states take via the Sumed pipeline and Suez Canal back them too.