I am no fan of the Muslim Brotherhood, but I don’t understand why the Egyptian military feels it is necessary to open fire on protesters. The trumped up charges against deposed President Mohamed Morsi are transparently ridiculous and have the effect of rejecting the legitimacy of the revolution that removed President Hosni Mubarak from power.
In fact, a Mubarak restoration is what this looks like. The more cosmopolitan people of Cairo are happy because they never wanted to be ruled by religious conservatives, but the dream of representative government is dying quickly in Egypt. It’s one thing to remove the government because they are failing to create consensus, and quite another to try to crush the government’s supporters.
I remember when the Shah’s forces began killing protesters in large numbers. It didn’t end well. The Obama administration can cut off aid tomorrow if they decide to classify the removal of the Morsi government as a coup. They should use that leverage to try to get the Egyptian military to use some restraint.
