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. 
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. 
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
- Anthony Cordesman: Democracy needs experienced political parties and leaders
- Cordesman: Egypt had no real democratic center at the ready to make democracy work
- Cutting off U.S. aid to Egypt won't be that significant to the military, Cordesman writes
- He says the U.S. needs to help develop democracy that comes from within Egypt
Editor's note: Anthony H. Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Follow CSIS on Twitter.
(CNN) -- There are no good or easy solutions for U.S. policy toward Egypt, and short-sighted arguments about military aid miss the broader issues entirely. America is relearning the lesson of the 1950s post-colonial period: Democracy depends on stable and experienced political parties and leaders, a willingness to compromise rather than conspire and to share or give up power until the next election.
Nations without that experience might hold elections, but such hollow exercises in democracy too often become little more than preludes to bitter power struggles and existential matters of survival for the factions involved.
The Obama administration did what it could in spite of these realities. It's becoming public that top U.S. officials did try to broker a settlement and avoid this. The White House worked with the European Union, the United Nations and key Arab states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. It soon found, however, that Egypt's military chief Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and ousted President Mohamed Morsy were on a collision course, and no real democratic center, no mix of leaders and experience, was at the ready to make democracy work.
The Egyptian military has shown in blood that it believes it cannot co-exist with the Muslim Brotherhood. Gen. al-Sisi may or may not emerge as the formal leader of Egypt, but there is no way for him and the Egyptian military to compromise with Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The military also has no need to compromise with Egypt's divided liberal factions and political leaders like Mohamed ElBaradei. Egypt's more liberal and secular voices may soon learn they cannot be independent in an era of military rule.
As the U.S. learned when it occupied Iraq from 2003 to 2011, it has little leverage to force any side to change its behavior.
Opinion: Mend, don't end, U.S. aid to Egypt
The debate over calling the Egyptian power a struggle a "coup" has been nothing more than a sideshow. The Egyptian military has more than enough U.S.- supplied weapons -- F-16s and M-1 tanks -- to wait out any cut or suspension in U.S. aid. Egypt also has no meaningful conventional military threat to its existing forces. The Camp David peace accords have secured a cold peace for Egypt as well as Israel.
Why Egyptians are heading to Dubai 
Mourning a victim of Egyptian violence 
Egypt turmoil spreads to Sinai President Obama canceled the American military's participation in next month's Operation Bright Star in Egypt -- but this was inevitable for other reasons. The Egyptian military is fighting a low-level civil war against Arab opponents in the Sinai -- a key location for the exercise -- and Egypt's military could scarcely carry out a massive military exercise and seize control of the country at the same time, any more than the U.S. could deploy troops into the middle of an ongoing power struggle.
Losing an annual $1.3 billion in U.S. aid or facing a delay in the delivery of F-16s is far less significant to Egypt's military than controlling the country and ensuring its own survival. Besides, the Egyptian military learned well over a month ago that it had other sources of decisive support.
Egyptian protester: Why we are willing to die
As the Muslim Brotherhood largely stood on the sidelines, the military removed Morsy from power on July 3 with the support of many of the same protesters who had originally brought down Mubarak. By July 9, key powers like Saudi Arabia and the UAE determined the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood controlling Egypt, or of Egypt descending into political turmoil, was worth an offer of $8 billion in aid to avoid.
At this point, some officials in the U.S. might be momentarily satisfied by formally calling the actions of Egypt's military a "coup," but it would be little more than an exercise in hollow symbolism. It also potentially deprives the U.S. of much of the little leverage it has.
The Egyptian military knows the U.S. needs Egypt as much as Egypt needs the U.S. Egypt plays a key role in dealing with threats like Iran, securing Israel and key Arab allies, supporting missions like the Afghan conflict, countering terrorism, and securing the flow of world oil exports and the global economy.
What the U.S. must do is to show strategic patience: It must accept the real world character of large-scale revolutions in states with no history of democracy or political base to make it work.
The U.S. needs to accept that Egypt is undergoing a power struggle that will take years to play out before real and stable democracy is possible.
It needs to send in an experienced ambassador like Robert Ford and reinforce a country team of diplomats and U.S. military.
It needs its senior officials and top military officers to do everything possible to persuade the Egyptian military to halt the killing and limit its future repression.
More broadly, the U.S. needs to make a lasting commitment to patiently working with every possible ally both inside and outside Egypt to create the kind of political forces, financial incentives, and compromises that can limit future upheavals and violence and lay the groundwork for lasting political change.
The U.S. cannot create instant democracy from the outside by constant diplomatic pressure, but it may be able to help, over time, move Egypt toward political reform from within.
Refocusing U.S. aid to slowly push Egypt's military toward compromise and restraint, building up Egypt's more secular and liberal forces, and making it clear that the U.S. supports the role of Egypt's moderate Islamists, offers no guarantees, but they are the best real world options available.
Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter .
Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion .
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Anthony Cordesman.
