Put me in, Coach!

I've has a little time to place this Egyptian mess in some historical context. Tell me how crazy this sounds.

There are two historical factors that preempt direct United States involvement in this mess.

1) The economic engine that IS the EU is considerably, (albeit not exclusively) by the flow of goods through the Suez Canal. Granted, in this new era of global superpowers not necessarily residing on the European Continent, the military strategic importance of the Suez, while substantial, isn't what it was 25 years ago. Still... considerable. So having this resource threatened, the EU looks in the mirror to see who's going to "fix" it. Or at the very least secure the canal.

Checking the roll call, who in the EU can project that kind of force?

It is my humble opinion that Putin will NOT move, even if asked. The Russians do not need the canal, have never needed it, and benefit without it. So that leaves the French and the Brits.

The EU is already in serious, serious trouble. They CANNOT afford a hiccup. This intervention will come quickly and with uncharacteristic decisiveness, because option number two is less attractive to everyone involved.

2) If these riots lead to a Muslim Brotherhood controlled government in Jordan and Egypt, and IF the PA decides to climb on the band wagon, and Syria and Lebanon begin to shake a bit in the same direction, Israel will move. I am not sure what type of action they would take other than to eliminate direct military threats, the first of which would be the PA. And make no mistake. History shows us how this will go down. The PA will be left with NOTHING if it even survives. Egypt will be hurt in an unprecedented manner since in 67 and 74 they lacked a centralized infrastructure that was strategically vulnerable and Israel didn't possess the means to take out said infrastructure without unacceptable collateral damage. As a society in Africa Egypt would be set back a generation, which is TRAGIC.

None of this requires a Ph.D to figure out. But a question that stumps me at the moment is this: What other European power can project force other than those I've mentioned? And do you agree with any of this?