The United States is struggling to overcome distrust in Egypt, where both supporters and opponents of former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi blame Washington for bolstering the other side.

Perhaps seeking to avoid exactly such a theme from taking hold, and in line with the recommendations of some foreign policy analysts, the Obama administration sought to emphasize that it was not taking sides in the current Egyptian crisis.

The claims have did not resonate:

“America needs to wake up and realize we are a Muslim country,” said the 52-year-old motorcycle mechanic, wearing a long white tunic and clutching a pocket-sized Koran. “We had a democratically elected Muslim government, and America let it fall to the bloodthirsty army”…

But on Tahrir Square, the cradle of the youth-led movement that mobilized millions of Egyptians to rise up against Mursi, animosity appears, if anything, to be greater. “America made an alliance with the Brotherhood against the Egyptian people,” said Tawfiq Munir, waving a placard reading “We are the coup” at one recent rally in Tahrir.

America is the top international donor to Egypt, providing $1.3 in military aid and another $250 million in civilian assistance. Cairo was where President Barack Obama unvieled his 2009 outreach initiative to the Muslim world.

The Washington Institute’s Michael Singh this week suggested that discussing the U.S.’s specific policy toward Egypt missed the point:

But the question itself is the wrong one, and the narrow focus on U.S. aid is misplaced. As is the case with the long debate on arming the opposition and setting up a no-fly zone in Syria, it is generally misguided in foreign policy to zero in on and debate a specific tactic in the absence of any clear sense of one’s objective or strategy for achieving it…

To avoid a repeat of the mistakes and turbulence of Morsy’s tenure, the United States should emphasize pluralism and respect for human rights; the building of democratic institutions, especially a constitution conforming to broad principles to which most Egyptians can agree, and the development of political parties; and the development of a plan for resolving the economic crisis — rather than calling for immediate elections. Elections are necessary but, as Morsy so clearly demonstrated, not sufficient to make a democracy…

In Egypt, the United States has been given a second chance it hoped not to require. To make the most of it, American policymakers should view it not just as a chance to revisit U.S. policy toward Egypt, but to reassert American leadership in the Middle East.

[Photo: AlJazeeraEnglish / Youtube]