Today, most of the American military schools — from West Point in New York to National Defense University in Washington — have an Egyptian officer sitting in the classroom. Right now, one is even on a class trip to San Francisco.

Those relationships, Scales said, build what he calls enormous influence with Egypt, “not just because of the schools, but because of almost 30 years of intimate contact from exercises to the sale of military hardware like M1 tanks and F-16 fighter jets.”…

But Jon Alterman, who runs the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Pentagon may be kidding itself if it thinks there’s a special bond.

“The Egyptians have been very careful not to allow tight relationships between the U.S. and Egyptian officers to develop, some would argue to prevent a pro-American coup in the military,” Alterman said…

“I don’t think there’s anything the U.S. can do that’s really decisive in terms of what’s happening on the streets in Egypt or in terms of determining how the Egyptian government views what’s happening on the streets,” he said. “It seems to very much have its own momentum.”