If the Muslim Brotherhood denied a ballot, or refused to accept defeat, tougher measures could then have been contemplated. As it is, the army’s coup was indefensible, and its slaughter of mostly unarmed protesters ranks in infamy with the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, and those of Libya’s former leader, Muammar el-Qaddafi, and Syria’s Hafez and Bashar al-Assad.
前总统穆尔西政府是一场灾难性的失败——意识形态上冷酷无情，经济上完全外行，宪政上又不可靠。它将一个渴望新的包容性的社会深深地极化了。但是，如果军队保持冷静——并且管住扳机——有充分的理由相信穆尔西在下一次选举中将被选下台。如果穆斯林兄弟会否认投票结果，或拒绝接受被击败的事实，此时再采取更严厉的措施不迟。军队的政变是站不住脚的，其对大多手无寸铁的示威者的屠杀堪与1989年天安门事件以及利比亚前领导人卡扎菲和叙利亚的哈菲兹和巴沙尔等人的暴行相提并论。