The Obama Administration’s stance on Egypt’s coup, which is to say it’s non-stance where it refuses to say if a military takeover counts as a coup or not, hasn’t impressed much of anyone in Egypt, and the first high-profile US official visit, of Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, has been met coldly.
Talk of Burns meeting with many “civil society groups” didn’t pan out because Burns found very few people willing to meet with him at all, and major factions in the old, elected government spurned him outright.
The formerly ruling Muslim Brotherhood rejected Burns especially harshly, blaming the US for the military coup that replaced them with a new junta and a handful of “liberal” backers.
America’s de facto pro-coup position seemed clear in what few meetings Burns did find, talking up the military takeover as a “second chance at democracy” and admonishing them in extremely mild terms for the mass arrest of opponents of military rule.
While administration officials sought to justify their ambiguous position toward the coup as maintaining “influence” in the nation, Burns reception shows this has backfired, and the US has found itself making enemies of virtually everybody.
Chickens coming home to roost…all those years funneling US taxpayer money into the hands of people whose plans do not include anything of benefit to the US and what do we have to show? Bupkus baby. They are finally tired of US arrogant interference into their affairs. The US used to be admired around the world…now we are pariahs…pretty much everywhere…even at home as the inner workings of our government are exposed for everyone to see…nicely done, Archons.
"both sides"?? There's at least four sides visible from the other side of the world. 1) The Muslim Brotherhood, 2) The old Mubarak regime, 3) The US backed, funded and trained Egyptian Army, and 4) the liberal, secular protesters of Tahir Sq.
Three of the sides did ally to throw the fourth side out of power recently, but that doesn't mean they are all now together. And the antiwar.com article only really seems to mention the envoy being spurned by one side.
The linked article has more details, and shows the envoy meeting with one side, the ex-Mubarak officials being appointed by the army. The Muslim brotherhood and the Tahir Square secularists seemed to reject him. Presumably there are regular meetings with the Egyptian Army, but since the US military carries out its own diplomacy these days, those are probably military-to-military contacts we won't hear about.
The US "interest" is in nothing except power and control. It is not for people, it is for a few rich exploiters.