John R. Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the United States made a strategic error in pushing former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power, and now must pay the consequences of a Muslim Brotherhood-backed government that isn’t friendly to Western interests.

His comments came as National Review Online published photographs of Egyptian protesters carrying signs with the words “Wake Up America: Obama Backs Up a Fascist Regime in Egypt.” Another photograph of protesters outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, posted by a blogger: “Obama: Stop Supporting MB Fascist Regime.”

President Obama called embattled Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Tuesday to suggest Mr. Morsi engage in talks and strike a political agreement to end the country’s chaos, a White House official said in The Jerusalem Post. But the United States played a more direct role in helping Egypt change leadership in 2011, paving the way for a peaceful transition from Mr. Mubarak’s presidency to that of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Mr. Morsi‘s.

And that 2011 intervention was a political snafu, Mr. Bolton said in a Newsmax interview.

“We made a big mistake — I said it at the time — in forcing Mubarak out. He’s no Jeffersonian Democrat, but he was an ally of the United States and he supported the Camp David accord with Israel,” he said.

Mr. Morsi has only worsened Egypt’s economy and ratcheted tensions within his own country and with the West.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is not going to take it well if Morsi is forced out of government,” Mr. Bolton said. “Whatever happens in the short term, this conflict is not going away.”

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