Egypt's bloody crackdown: What does Obama do now?

After a day's worth of bloody violence, Egypt finds itself at a crossroads — as does the administration of President Barack Obama.

The White House on Wednesday condemned the Egyptian military's brutal crackdown on Islamist protesters demanding the reinstatement of ousted president Mohamed Morsi. A spokesman for Obama also criticized the interim Egyptian government for declaring a state of emergency, which gave the army unchecked power to restore order, and said the U.S. would hold Egypt accountable for keeping its promise to restore democracy.

Obama, however, faces mounting pressure to do more. The latest violence, which pitted heavily armed soldiers against rock-throwing civilians, has killed more than 230 people. There have been renewed calls for the U.S. to cut off the $1.3 billion in annual aid it sends to Egypt's military. And Turkey, a valuable NATO ally, went so far as to call for the United Nations and Arab League to intervene to stop the violence.

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It doesn't help the U.S. that Mohamed ElBaredei, the interim government's vice president, resigned in protest today, withdrawing crucial liberal support and cementing the impression that the oppressive tactics of the Hosni Mubarak era have returned.

There are plenty of reasons to tread carefully in Egypt. Ending America's military aid to Egypt could remove the only leverage Obama has to steer events in the country. "The country's military would be even harder to influence, and given its current power over the country, this is clearly a dangerous prospect," Khairi Abaza argued this week at CNN.

That has been the consensus realpolitik stance since Morsi was ousted. But the argument sways fewer and fewer people as horrifying images stream out of Cairo and the death toll rises. Here's Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy:

As Andrew Sullivan puts it at The Dish, "There is no way the U.S. can aid a government that guns down its citizens in the streets."

Furthermore, what is the U.S. really getting from all the aid it has provided? Here's Amy Davidson at The New Yorker:

Indeed, threatening to withdraw the aid may be the last card Obama has to play, particularly when you consider that Egypt has been the recipient of billions of dollars in additional funding from Sunni autocracies — like Saudi Arabia and the UAE — that are more than glad to see the Muslim Brotherhood on its heels.

Here's The Washington Post in an editorial: