A soldier sets up barbed wire in anticipation of protesters outside the constitutional court in Cairo on Sunday, August 18. The protesters never showed up. Over the past week, about 900 people -- security forces as well as citizens -- have been killed. Deaths occurred when the military used force to clear supporters of ousted President Mohamed Morsy from two sit-in sites in Cairo on Wednesday, and violence raged after Morsy supporters staged demonstrations Friday. Look back at Egypt's unrest.
Editor's note: David Rothkopf writes regularly for CNN.com. He is CEO and editor-at-large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Follow him on Twitter.
(CNN) -- The slaughter of hundreds in Egypt this week was horrifying. The response of the United States to that slaughter seemed puny and impotent. The president and the secretary of state offered strongly worded condemnations, and the United States canceled its participation in a military exercise that probably wouldn't have happened anyway, given the unrest.
Around the world critics suggested the United States was either effectively condoning the violence or sending a strong message that it wouldn't penalize the Egyptian military for this or future harshness. It didn't help that after his statement the president slipped off for a round of golf.
The unnecessarily callous optics of the golf game aside, the unsettling reality is that America's options were puny and likely to have very little effect. Indeed, the White House wisely avoided falling into the trap of "feel good measures:" bold gestures that may resonate but ultimately won't work.
Some argue the United States should suspend the delivery of some or all the $1.3 billion in annual aid it sends to the Egyptian government. But this would only further reduce the limited influence we have over the Egyptian military.
Mosque at center of Egyptian clashes
It is important to remember that after Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy's overthrow, governments from the Persian Gulf in a matter of days offered the new Egyptian government 10 times the amount the United States gives each year. Not only did this shift the balance of influence away from the United States, but it also raises the possibility that they might well have replaced any funds we withdrew, blunting the impact of our actions.
It is also important to remember that the situation in Egypt is not black and white. While there is no excuse for the kind of massacres that took place this week, the Muslim Brotherhood also has a share of responsibility for the situation on the ground. The Morsy government regularly abused its authority, trampled on basic human rights and was so widely reviled in Egypt that its overthrow was welcomed by tens of millions of citizens.
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Indeed, if you are looking for a place to fault the U.S. response, look to our relative tolerance of Morsy's abuses and our failure to strongly and effectively call him out as his government crushed personal freedoms, suppressed the press, threw opponents in jail and stood by as the Muslim Brotherhood actively sought to sow discord throughout the Middle East.
Had the United States been tougher back then and had it worked more with the international community to tie total aid flows to better behavior, it could have helped forestall the current situation. The United States consistently did and said too little too late. It also fell into the trap of overstating the legitimacy that being elected conferred on Morsy, even as he undercut that legitimacy by acting in a perniciously undemocratic way.
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This last overall point contains the secret to effective U.S. leverage over Egypt and many countries these days. The United States cannot have much impact acting alone. Unless--in an instance like this-- it can speak for a broad cross section of aid-giving countries and institutions, the impact of any conditions it sets is likely to be limited.
Impact requires purposeful, active political and economic diplomacy at the highest level—including the willingness to pressure friends. It also requires having a clear plan. Finally, those with whom the United States is interacting, be they friends or adversaries, have to believe that it has the resolve to follow through -- and the willingness to take materially positive action if things go the way America wants.
But a United States that is post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan is correctly seen in the Middle East and elsewhere as "leaning back." A trifecta of forces has contributed to this:
The huge costs and damage of our misadventures in the region have left us disinclined to further commit major resources or incur further risks. Our domestic economic problems have led us to turn inward and question how we allocate our resources. And the polarization in U.S. politics has both produced divisions that make action hard and empowered the extreme wings of both parties, groups that for all their divisions happen to share a taste for isolationism.
American inaction in Syria, the growing violence in Iraq, our apparent inclination to get out of Afghanistan at any cost, and our relative silence on the decaying situation elsewhere in North Africa all contribute to the unhelpful perception that we are not going to put our shoulder into much in the region (or elsewhere for that matter).
It's not that we'll be absent. Not that we won't issue statements. Not that we won't take some modest actions. It's just that we will do less where we can do less. We will hesitate more. And with each illustration of this—whether our restraint is soundly based or not—we lose credibility and thus leverage.
This is the hard choice for America: Embrace the risks and costs of real engagement or accept those associated with a much more passive role. This doesn't mean we have to be foolish. We don't need more Iraqs.
But the lesson of Iraq was not to never intervene again. It was to never do so rashly, recklessly or for the wrong reasons. It was to resist the temptation to act alone, to step up to the hard work of real diplomacy, to keep our eye on our nation's need to be a more effective leader in the international community, rather than simply the bullying hyperpower. It was to understand that the trick of leadership is actually getting others to follow, building coalitions, leveraging our power with that of others.
Because as we are now discovering, sometimes the greatest costs of mistakes like the ones we made in Iraq and Afghanistan are the way they limit our ability or inclination to take action in the future when it is truly necessary.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Rothkopf.
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Friends and relatives of Ammar Badie, 38, killed Friday during clashes in Ramses Square, carry his coffin during his funeral in Al-Hamed mosque in Cairo on August 18. Ammar Badie was the son of the Muslim Brotherhood's spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie.
Wreckage and debris litter the area around the Al-Fateh mosque in Cairo, where hundreds of Islamist protesters had barricaded themselves on Saturday, August 17. Thousands defied an emergency order by taking to the streets the day before to mark a "Friday of anger" in support of ousted President Mohamed Morsy.
Riot police enter the community services hall of the Al-Fateh mosque, where Morsy supporters had holed up on August 17.
Policemen stand guard inside a room of Al-Fateh mosque as supporters of Morsy exchange gunfire with security forces inside the mosque in Cairo on Saturday, August 17.
Egyptians security forces escort a supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood out of the Al-Fateh mosque and through an angry crowd in Ramses Square on August 17.
An army officer escorts an Islamist woman out of Cairo's Al-Fateh mosque on August 17.
A Morsy supporter prays on the floor of the Al-Fateh mosque in Ramses Square as injured protesters are treated nearby on Friday, August 16.
A wounded boy is treated in the Taamin Sehi field hospital during clashes on August 16.
A supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood runs past a burning vehicle near Cairo's Ramses Square during clashes with security officers on August 16.
Morsy supporters carry supplies while violent clashes continue to take place near Ramses Square on August 16.
An Egyptian man offers a bottle of juice to policemen as clashes between Morsy supporters and security forces continue in Cairo on August 16.
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Morsy supporters flee shooting near Ramses Square in Cairo on August 16.
A Muslim Brotherhood member and Morsy supporter wears a gas mask made out of a plastic bottle during clashes in front of the Azbkya police station on August 16.
Morsy supporters march in Cairo. Gunfire was heard from the overpass as tear gas was fired.
Demonstrators hurt in the clashes at Ramses Square are taken away on August 16 in Cairo.
A military helicopter flies above demonstrators in Cairo on August 16.
A protester receives treatment at the Al-Fateh mosque in Cairo on August 16.
Bodies of protesters who died during clashes are laid out at the Al-Fateh mosque on August 16.
A group of men gather around an injured protester in Giza on August 16.
Demonstrators and Muslim Brotherhood supporters carry the body of a man apparently shot during clashes with security forces in Giza district on the outskirts of Cairo on August 16.
Morsy supporters demonstrate outside Al-Fateh mosque in Ramses Square in Cairo on August 16.
Protesters demonstrate near Ennour mosque in Cairo on August 16.
A flag-covered coffin of a man killed during Wednesday's clashes is carried at Amr Ibn Al-As mosque before a funeral in Cairo on August 16.
A protester wounded during clashes braces for help outside of a church on Mourad Street in Giza on August 16.
Egyptian soldiers take positions alongside armored vehicles as they guard the entrance to Tahrir Square in Cairo on Friday, August 16.
A Morsy supporter takes part in a protest near Ennour mosque in Cairo on August 16.
People reach for a coffin on Thursday, August 15, during a funeral for police officers killed during a crackdown at two protest camps in support of Morsy.
Egyptian police officers attend the funeral for their colleagues on August 15.
Men are detained near a burned section of Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 15.
People search through debris at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square on August 15.
A man on August 15 checks out a list of names of those killed in the crackdown.
Egyptians mourn over a body wrapped in shrouds at a Cairo mosque August 15.
Morsy supporters carry a coffin into a mosque in Cairo's Nasr City on August 15.
A woman weeps after identifying the body of a relative on August 15 at a Cairo mosque.
A man walks inside the burned-out Rabaa Al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 15.
Motorcyclists pass by debris, including Morsy posters, in Cairo's Nahda Square on August 15.
Supporters of Morsy shout during clashes with Egyptian police at the Rabaah Al-Adawiya protest camp in Cairo's Nasr City district on August 14.
A woman tries to stop a military bulldozer from hurting a wounded youth during clashes on August 14 in eastern Cairo.
Morsy supporters run as Egyptian security forces fire toward them on August 14.
An injured youth is seen at a makeshift hospital in Cairo on August 14.
Supporters of Morsy take cover from Egyptian security forces during clashes on August 14.
A Morsy supporter reacts after identifying the body of a dead family member at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Medical Center on August 14 in Cairo.
The national identity cards of protesters allegedly killed during a clear-out operation by Egyptian security forces on pro-Morsy demonstrators are exchanged at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Medical Center on August 14.
A Morsy supporter lies wounded on a stretcher at the Rabaa al-Adawiya Medical Center on August 14.
Plumes of smoke rise from the site of a protest in support of deposed President Morsy in Cairo on August 14.
Army bulldozers remove a barricade erected by supporters of Morsy during clashes with riot police at Cairo's Mustafa Mahmoud Square on August 14.
Supporters of Morsy push a police vehicle off the 6th of October Bridge in Cairo on August 14.
A member of the Egyptian security forces lies on the ground in Cairo on August 14 after a police vehicle was pushed off the 6th of October Bridge.
A man grieves at a makeshift morgue in Cairo on August 14.
Morsy supporters confront police at Cairo's Mustafa Mahmoud Square on August 14.
Morsy supporters carry a wounded man during clashes with riot police in Cairo on August 14.
A Morsy supporter during clashes with police in Cairo on August 14.
Riot police stand behind a wounded man near Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 14.
Supporters of Morsy and members of the Muslim Brotherhood run from tear gas as security forces move in at the site of a pro-Morsy sit-in in Cairo on August 14.
A Morsy supporter sits under arrest at Cairo's Nahda Square on August 14.
Egyptians help a woman suffering from tear gas exposure in a street leading to Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 14.
Egyptian security forces detain protesters in Cairo's Nasr City district on August 14.
The scene from a street in Cairo's Nasr City appears chaotic as security forces clear a sit-in August 14.
A woman tries to protect herself from tear gas in Cairo on August 14.
Muslim Brotherhood supporters run from tear gas in a street leading to Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo on August 14.
Protesters gather in Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya Square on Monday, August 12.
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