First, I concur with Sal's point that the Egyptian military is very professional for the region.Over the last generation they seem to have become more loyal to a principle of representative government than political personalities. They are not, however, without self-interest.

When comparing with Iran, there are some key factors not considered. First, many of the American-trained officers in the Shah's military were purged, resigned or fled, and all were specifically excluded from the IRGC--the key to the mullahs' power. Second, the US was not explicitly training to and attempting to impress priciples of good governance during the era we were training Iranian officers. We do much more of that now, and it seems to be bearing good fruit--and not just in Egypt.

To get back to the self-interest point, in my interaction with Egyptian officers, they candidly (and confidentially) agree that the current government is broken on many levels and needs to be refomed. Perhaps one of the thoughts in the minds of Egypt's military leadership is they see the handwriting on the wall and wish to avoid just such a purge when the new system emerges.

Just. Plain. Foolish.

This represents a remarkable failure to frame the problem: "As the goal of any war is to kill the enemy...."

Clauswitz (and just about every other serious strategist) would disagree.

My recent post Politics &amp Culture News Today – 10-8-10

China's a rising--and inexperienced--power trying to figure out how to act in and shape the global system. For the time being they're going to be more assertive around their margins, and some eggs will get broken in the process, but globally they're going to be hesitant to get involved where Chinese interests aren't clearly at stake.