Egypt's crackdown strains military ties with US
The Pentagon relies heavily on Cairo to allow overflights and access to the Suez, but this marriage of convenience is sorely strained
Most nations, including many close allies of the United States, require as much as a week's notice before US warplanes are allowed to cross their territory.
Not Egypt, which offers near-automatic approval for such overflights, to resupply the war effort in Afghanistan or to carry out counterterrorism operations in the Middle East, Southwest Asia or the Horn of Africa. Losing that route could significantly increase flight times to the region.
US warships are also allowed to cut to the front of the queue through the Suez Canal in times of crisis. Without Egypt's co-operation, military missions could take days longer.
Those are some of the largely invisible ways the Egyptian military has assisted the United States as it pursues its interests across the region - and why the generals now in charge in Cairo are not without their own leverage in dealing with Washington in the aftermath of President Barack Obama's condemnation on Thursday of the military's bloody crackdown on supporters of the former president, Mohammed Mursi.
In his first overtly punitive step, Obama cancelled the Bright Star military exercise, the largest and most visible sign of co-operation between the armed forces of the two nations.
But given the growing violence in Egypt, it might have been impossible to guarantee the safety of the thousands of US troops scheduled to deploy for the war game, and the decision to call it off might have been the wise move regardless of the politics. For the Pentagon, other steps might be more difficult.