If you are going to intervene in a foreign country, it helps to know what you want to happen. But on Egypt – and Syria, too – western policy is buffeted by a mass of conflicting instincts. The US and the EU are pro-democracy but anti-Islamist; pro-stability but anti-crackdown; opposed both to jihadists and to their enemies in the security state. No wonder that the Arab world is confused. The one thing that unites the Egyptian military and the Muslim Brotherhood is that they both claim to have been betrayed by the US.
如果你打算在別國進(jìn)行調(diào)停，那么最好先弄明白你希望該國出現(xiàn)何種結(jié)果。但在埃及（還有敘利亞），西方的政策卻被眾多互相沖突的直覺想法裹挾得擺來擺去。美國和歐盟(EU)支持民主，但反對(duì)伊斯蘭主義；支持穩(wěn)定，但反對(duì)鎮(zhèn)壓；既反對(duì)圣戰(zhàn)分子，又反對(duì)圣戰(zhàn)分子在這個(gè)警察國家的敵人。難怪阿拉伯世界會(huì)感到困惑。埃及軍方和穆斯林兄弟會(huì)(Muslim Brotherhood)唯一一致的地方在于，他們均聲稱遭到美國的背叛。