Egypt is in flames, and once again the United States is standing off to the sidelines, all flustered, as it watches the events unfold. It is acting indecisively and sending out conflicting messages. The Obama administration didn’t know how to respond immediately after the Egyptian military seized power in the country on July 4, and presented itself as the defender of the people, acting to fulfill their will. On the one hand, it was quite obvious to everyone that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry leaned toward condemning the military takeover. After all, the country that is the cradle of democracy cannot stand idly by while force is used to depose a duly elected president. On the other hand, who would want to be seen as the defender of the Muslim Brotherhood? That was why it was decided to congratulate the new government in guarded terms, while calling on both sides to avoid violence.

Now, when more than 600 people have died in the riots, the Obama administration has handed revolutionary Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi a “penalty card.” The 600 casualties from live fire are incontrovertible proof that this is more than just an uptick in the violence between two rival political factions. It is a sign that the regime is breaking all the moral rules in its relationship with the people. Once it reaches a point where Egypt’s “people’s army” starts shooting indiscriminately at civilian demonstrators, it has more in common with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army, which also shoots indiscriminately at Syrian citizens just to keep the president in power.

No matter how we look at it, a civil war is brewing in Egypt, sweeping the entire population up in the hostilities. This is a civil war that could last years. In fact, it is a lot like Syria. Some 100,000 have already been killed there, and for a while it looked like Assad would win, but that war is far from over.

In Egypt, this is only the beginning. A total of 600 casualties in a single week is the beginning of something horrendous, which will leave the Nile running bloodred for years. The intemperately aggressive response of the Egyptian military to the demonstrations only motivated the Muslim Brotherhood to respond in kind. After seeing 600 people — most of them Muslim Brotherhood supporters — dead, the rules of the game have suddenly changed, and all that is left is one primal and very disconcerting desire: the desire for revenge. With a population of 85 million living in close quarters, revenge killings could lead to the kind of bloodshed that would make Assad’s army seem gentle and considerate by comparison.