Your editorial (Egypt's Tiananmen Square, 15 August) suggests parallels between the events in Cairo and those of 4 June 1989 in Beijing. Given the failure of the US to cut its military aid to Egypt's military, should it now lift its arms embargo on China, still in place after 23 years, lest a wider public gets the idea its policies are hypocritical?
Dr Jenny Clegg
Manchester
• I travelled to Cairo last May, after the revolution and before the elections. There was a very positive atmosphere and optimism with about the fact that they now had a choice about their future. Opinions were strong and varied, which showed up later in the election results. Polarisation in a democracy is not unusual (think of the strong division in the UK in the 80s, still evident at Thatcher's funeral 30 years later), but military intervention can never be the answer.
The west's response to recent events in Egypt is instructive. The US is a strong supporter of democracy as long as the people choose the US state department's preferred candidate. Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, Hamas in Palestine, Ahmedinejad in Iran and now Morsi in Egypt illustrate the consequences of making the wrong choice: pain delivered to the electorate through aid cuts or sanctions and military aid to the opposition.
The UK Foreign Office position is predictable, of course: a weak echo of whatever is said by Washington. Perhaps we see the need for their support with a taskforce to rescue Gibraltar.
Jim Pettman
Anglars-Juillac, France
