On the brink again - Telegraph Egypt has undergone so much turmoil over the past two years that it seems somewhat late in the day to urge the country's leaders to "pull back from the brink." That was the message issued yesterday by John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, after troops opened fire on a Muslim Brotherhood protest in Cairo on Saturday, killing dozens of demonstrators. Yet there is a palpable feeling that Western powers no longer have any serious influence over events in Egypt or elsewhere in the region. The fulminations of Washington, London and Paris against the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria have had no effect and he remains installed in Damascus, probably facing years of insurgency and civil war. In Egypt, the West was enthusiastic about the revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak, believing it would usher in a Western-style democracy in the Arab world's most populous nation. But the best-organised political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, won the subsequent election only to be removed by a military coup last month. The president, Mohamed Morsi, has not been seen in public since. In such circumstances, it is hardly surprising that Mr Morsi's supporters should take to the streets. But the parallels with Algeria - which saw an Islamist government toppled by the military in 1991 and 10 years of civil war in which 100,000 died - are growing all too ominous to allow Egypt to go the same way. The Muslim Brotherhood maintains it is a peaceful organisation, but there are other more extreme Islamist groups in Sinai who assuredly are not, and which will soon make their presence felt. Mr Kerry is right to say Egypt is on the brink but his concern must go beyond the purely rhetorical. If the Americans have any strings to pull with the military in Cairo, they must tug on them now before it is too late.