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Subscribe to RSSAlmost exactly two years ago during the exhilaration of “Arab Spring,” there were soaring hopes both inside Egypt and abroad that with the overthrow of the autocratic Hosni Mubarak, an era of democracy and human rights might be dawning.
Today despite the change of leaders from Hosni Mubarak to Mohammed Morsi, authoritarian rule in Egypt continues -- and so too in all likelihood will U.S. aid to that country.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh / REUTERS
A man walks past riot police as he covers his face from tear gas during clashes with protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, along Simon Bolivar Square, which leads to Tahrir Square, in Cairo Jan. 30, 2013. Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi flew to Germany on Wednesday to try to convince Europe of his democratic credentials, leaving behind a country in crisis after a week of violence that has killed more than 50 people.
For the current fiscal year, President Obama is requesting $1.55 billion in aid to Egypt, about 80 percent of it in the form of military assistance.
At this point, there appears to be no serious threat that Congress might block or cancel funds for Egypt, even given the arbitrary action Morsi has taken in recent months – such as his declaration that his decisions are immune from judicial review until a new constitution is adopted. On Sunday, Morsi imposed a state of emergency in three Egyptian cities torn by riots and protests. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the Egyptian military, warned Tuesday that the “collapse of the state” would occur if the warring factions in the country did not come to terms.
Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., who recently got back from a trip to the Middle East with other senators that included an interview with Morsi, told reporters Tuesday American aid should not be delayed while the U.S. waits for events to settle down in Egypt.
A delay might “contribute to the chaos that may ensue because of their collapsing economy,” McCain warned. “Their biggest problem is a collapsing economy. The Israelis are in favor of continuing the aid to Egypt. I think that’s important. We listen a lot to the Israelis.”
Illustrating a foreign policy divide in Republican ranks, Sen. Rand Paul, R- Ky., challenged secretary of state nominee Sen. John Kerry, D- Mass., at his confirmation hearing last week on why the United States should pay to send F-16 fighters to Morsi’s regime.
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Last September, in the aftermath of attacks on American diplomats in Libya and Egypt, Paul declared in a Senate speech, “Not one penny more for Libya or Egypt or Pakistan until they act as our allies. Some say we have to keep sending it. Fine, let’s send it when they act as our allies. Let’s send it when they start behaving as civilized nations and come to their senses.”
“The American people are tired of this,” Paul said. “Our Treasury is bare. There is a multitude of reasons why we should not continue to send good money after bad.”
According to a recent Congressional Research Service report, "Between 1948 and 2011, the United States provided Egypt with $71.6 billion in bilateral foreign aid, including $1.3 billion a year in military aid from 1987 to the present. Since 1979, Egypt has been the second-largest recipient, after Israel, of U.S. bilateral foreign assistance."
But in his opposition to more U.S. taxpayer subsidies for Egypt, Paul remains very much an outlier both in his party and in the Senate as whole.
Kerry explained to his colleagues last week that Egypt is simply too important for America not to fund.
“We have critical interests with Egypt,” he said. “Egypt has thus far supported and lived by the peace agreement with Israel. And has taken steps to begin to deal with the problem of security in the Sinai. Those are vital to us and to our national interests and to the security of Israel.”
And on Tuesday an array of senators agreed with Kerry and McCain that the flow of U.S. funds to Morsi must continue.
When senators are asked about funding, the term they use is “engagement.” Asked whether the turmoil in Egypt should cause a pause in U.S. aid, Sen. Bob Corker, R- Tenn., the senior Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday, “I don’t think it should affect our engagement, necessarily, with the country.”
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Sen. Bob Casey, D- Pa., who has been serving as chairman of the Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Middle East, noted that “I have always said when we provide aid, it’s never unconditional and we should always evaluate our aid in the context of what’s happening at a particular time. But I don’t favor these blanket aid bans that we often hear debated here (in the Senate).”
Another Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Chris Coons, D- Del., who was on the recent trip to Middle East with McCain, said the senators’ discussion with Morsi touched on “the importance of ongoing U.S. support for their economy, for their military,” as well as “their progress toward full democracy” and Egypt’s adherence to its obligations under the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
Coons noted that there has been a hold on U.S. economic development assistance for the Cairo regime since mid-2012.
According to CRS, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R- Fla., then chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Rep. Kay Granger, R - Texas, House Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee chairwoman, placed holds on $450 million in economic aid to Egypt.
“The question isn’t: would we further delay it (aid) ?” Coons said, “The question is: Is there a time when we’re going to begin releasing aid and providing some ongoing support to the Egyptian government?”
That hold is on economic development aid, but what about military aid, which is far larger?
Coons said the bipartisan delegation of senators had a “very positive” meeting with Egypt’s defense minister during their trip two weeks ago. “I came away from that convinced that we have a strong shared commitment to regional security and peace and that we are making a responsible investment of U.S. dollars in sustaining our military-to-military relationship.”
So, he added, “To the extent that they continue to make progress toward democracy, openness, and respecting their treaty obligations, I will continue to support U.S. assistance to Egypt.”
But Coons added Tuesday he wanted to get a briefing on the latest round of turmoil in Egypt.
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Democracy in mid. east is NOT perfect.. but it better to help those
struggling new democracy.. otherwise the radicals will take over..
its going to take YEEEEARS fOR THOSE Countries like Egypt
to master this new thing called 'democracy' give them time.. its
to the u.s best interest. there are NO other options.
The only problem is, we no longer live in a democracy, the wealthy have out-priced the ruling offices of our country out from under most people. We now live in a plutocracy, or maybe we should call it a cleptocracy since our country has been stolen from us!
We are not even looking after our own people. We have no business taking care of other people with American taxpayer money. Scr*w the Egyptians. We kept that dictator Mubarak in power for over 30-years. The Egyptian people hate us. I hate us. And I am an American. Shut down the State Department. Bring our foreign diplomatic corps home. We are broke. We cannot afford this wandering around throughout the world nonsense anymore.
Fu#% the Israelis, im so tired of taking care of their interests more than we do our own. Let Israel give them aid then.
reality check for you- I guess you don't mind supporting Muslim radicals instead of a Democracy
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2012/03/19/11328/interactive-map-foreign-aid/
Why do we support demockracy all these years and receive no benefit from it? The only people who benefit in those countries are the rich and powerful. Did Karzai share the 50 million in cash we gave him that he flaunted at an airport? No I don't think he helped his country or people with that money.
Cut the and all the other countries that hate us off, then we can balance the budget, the only country in that area to support is Isreal, everyone else should be sent to hellforeign policy and it is all political and what they can get, if they could they would kick us to the curb. Cut them off, support America, not these terrorist countries that would blow us up if they could. Arm our borders, keep our Nuks and secure our country not theirs. There will never be any peace in the Middle East until the Lord comes back, it is written in the Bible and people that do not believe this are ignorant.
verminguy -"you have to be careful about listening to the american public when it comes to foreign policy. Sadly, there is more ignorance than knowledge when it comes to affairs outside our borders.
I want our leaders to do the right thing, even if its the unpopular thing."
Yeah but you're an idiot so it doesn't really matter what you think .
well, that's a mature and clever statement...lol.
so are you saying that the politicians should do whatever 51% of americans say they want, even if it is stupid? lol, one of us is an idiot..and it isn't me. :)
Anyone who believes what a politician does is in our interest should be in a mental institute
oh, I'm sure most politicians do what is in their own best interest. I'm just pointing out that, theoretically, they should make decisions that are right, not necessarily popular.
Well I'm sure that whatever your hero o'hussein comes up with it'll be ok with you , of THAT I have no doubt .Helping egypt or ANY muslim country in any way is a huge mistake that will bite the US on the ass .You leftys may operate the koolaid stand but we're not buying it .
and i'm sure you will continue to post stupidity, having proved literally 0% of what you've posted. lol. :)
The only thing that has been proven is that obama is throwing cash to the muslims as fast as he possibly can .
american has been giving money to the egyptian military who does have muslims, that's true. its been a policy for decades. And that amount is about the same under every president. So your "as fast as he can" statement is just as stupid as the rest of your posts. :)
but thanks for admitting you've proven nothing of your nonsense. lol. :)
lol I was thinking vermonguy has that ignorant thing down to a t
What morons we have running our government.
The lF-16's going to Egypt will end up being used to control the people or on Israel. They are not defensive weapons. Morsi & his brotherhood are well on the way to replacing the top military leaders with people who agree with them. We end up giving weapons to them & they will spend our money on weapons from China & Russia where they can get them cheaper. They sure don't help Israel or try to stop any of there Arab neighbors from doing so yet our Congress insists on giving away everything we have worked for all our lives & we get nothing in return except higher taxes & more empty promises from our government.
Tell that to verminguy , he needs to hear it .
well, "verminguy" has read it. And its possible the military will use their forces against the people...especially if the islamacists try a hostile takeover, which would actually be a good thing.
Of course, if the military is used against isreal, they know that they will never get a dime in aid again, and since egypt is poor, that means the generals will have to work for a living, and I doubt they want to do that. And if they use it against isreal, they will get their butts kicked and end up being the generals of nothing.
Its a risk, but lets understand the risk intelligently, not with stupid ideology like somedude does. :)
yes verminguy you know everything , this newsvine thread is your very life ..
1.55 Billion( Aid to Egypt) + 4.2 Billion (Soda, candy, gum on food stamps), + 4 Billion (Child tax credits to illegals), + 55 Billion to Sandy victims (Insurance should have taken care of).
Keep printing the expenditures. I said go thru the budget line by line and you don't have to cut SS or medicare.
Why not just stop all foreign aid to any country where they hate America?
that might well make sense for general economic aid.
This is primarily military aid, and the egyptian military doesn't hate america. We work closely with them in fact.
Yeah they don't hate us as long as the cheque comes in .Sounds completely stable to me.We'll see how that works out when they start becoming IOU's .Those people are basically being paid to hate us .
Its been stable for 30 years, that's a pretty good track record, wouldn't you say? Egypt is a poor country, the military knows exactly what the implications of pissing us off are, and if we know anything about generals, they want the money and weapons and perks to continue.
That's when mubarack was in power , things haved changed a lot since then . This muslim brotherhood thing is not a good thing .
Morsi isn't running the military. That hasn't changed. Its clear they are still an independent organization, and represent the most powerful block in the country. The military has opposed the MB since forever, that isn't changing just because of an election. If they were run by morsi they would have intervened already on his behalf and consolidated his power. Instead they recently issued a statement that indicates they are ready to step in and take control again (reading between the lines).
So you didn't even read the article.
hhahahhahahaha
What an idiot.
If you did you'd know we've been supporting Egypt for decades, GOP, Dems in office, it doesn't matter.
Any facts, links about your fictious story "al qaida and the brotherhood"? or just hot air as usual.
Both of you are extremely Arrogant and Ignorant !
Let them kill each other for free. When the aid runs out they will kill us and send the bill to any survivors.
Of course, send more money to a country that hates our guts, thanks too our government......
again, we're sending the money to the military, who doesn't hate our guts..thanks to our government.
riiiiiight...
what part of what I posted isn't true, somedude? dazzle us with your "brilliance". :)
They like us about as much as pakistan likes us . You can't pay extreme islamists to like you . they're laughing under their breath as they accept the cheque from us kafir infadels. We're being played by people who's favorite chant is Death to America !!!! .Unlike you I don't believe everything I'm told by the govt .
You'll probably still think it's cool as they take over europe .That's the eventual goal of the Brotherhood .Notice you're one of the few people on the vine that's still brown nosing your leaderguy .
you do know that just mindlessly repeating your own worthless, biased opinion isn't "proof", dont you? lol.
clue for the clueless: the military are not "extreme islamacists". and we're not paying them to "like us", we're paying them to stay neutral and keep egypt in line. duh.
No, unlike me, you seem to believe everything that you hear on nutcase websites and radio shows. :)
more clues for the very clueless: I'm "brown nosing" obama by supporting a policy that has been in place for decades with good results, that makes a lot of sense? lol, you're funny.
vermontguy. Foreign policy and aid must fall behind the need of the American people. If you think otherwise then you are truly a fool. The American people are the first and only concern of the Congress and the Federal government. I know they would like to sing and dance and say that this is important to the American People. But look at it this way. If we keep throwing our tax money after foreign governments then there is less to use on our own soil. Period. Try taking an accounting class. Even better take a business management class. The federal government wants to keep borrowing money. We don't have the revenue to do this. Oh sure if you don't care if the Chinese Government ends up owning the west coast then who cares. Maybe we could have another Louisiana Purchase. That would help us out.
and if war breaks out in the middle east the global economy will be devastated, including ours of course. I've taken accounting and business management classes, thank you very much. :)
I think this investment has served the needs of the american people. You can disagree with me, but if you think I support egypt more than I support america, then you are wrong.
When the muslims finally do take over you'd be the first to convert ,vermontgoof
We can't afford to pay our bills but we give money away, what wrong with this picture
"For the current fiscal year, President Obama is requesting $1.55 billion in aid to Egypt, about 80 percent of it in the form of military assistance." Great. meanwhile,American's are in need of help so send more money,[that DC doesn't have] overseas. Such BS.
I say end all foreign aid be it money or military. We would no longer have a deficit if we just ended foreign aid. Let other countries fight their own battles and feed their own people. We are supporting too many deadbeats here on the backs of working citizens, so why should we support deadbeat countries? Let them duke it out and take care of their own!
Senator McCain states: "We listen alot to the Israelis"....
So... the elected officials don't have to listen to the citizens of the country who elected them and pay their salaries. Glad the citizens of the USA get representation of the people by the people...I guess its just the people who live in Israel.
If you asked the majority of US citizens if they wanted their hard earned tax money to go to Egypt, I think the majority would vote NO and want to use the money in the USA and help its economy.
If I can afford to retire someday, it won't be living in the USA. I will gladly move myself to Costa Rica or Belize, someplace cheap and quiet.
That tells us a lot about how the US runs its affiars.
It's a way for Obama to continue supporting his brothers in the Middle East.
or its a way to keep the military in control of the country and keeping them neutral.
So vermont douche do you get paid by msn to badger everyone who has a different opinioin than you ?
Keep the money in America and spend it on Americans who need food, clothing, healthcare, and shelter!
Screw the Egyptians, all of whom hate America and want to make our great nation a Muslim caliphate . . .
Let the Egyptians take care of themselves . . .
America needs to take care itself first, really . . .
Really! :-o
LET ME BE PERFECTLY CLEAR ABOUT THIS! How can the Federal government say it is important to keep giving our tax money away to foreign governments when we can't balance our own budget. GET FING REAL! The Osama Obama administration wants to gut our second amendment rights. They want to cut our Medicare and Medicaid. They want to allow illegal aliens to enter our country and vote. Oh wait, they've already arranged to put that to a vote. Oh and Vermontguy, If we can't afford to take care of our own what makes you think they have the right or responsibility to take care of Egypt! The Muslim Brotherhood caused this problem, let them eat it.
To all of you left wing fools out there. We are not the police of the world. We are certainly not the saviours of the world. The middle east is full of people who hate our guts. Africa, is full of people who would rape your Mother and then post it on Face book. We need to go back to Basics. In the pyramid of things the first thing is our own economic well being. Philanthropy falls a poor fourth. We need to take care of America first. Egypt and it's military and it's economy fall behind many, many more worthy causes.
If you want to argue that we can't afford it, go for it. That's a reasonable argument. I don't agree with it, but you can make a case that the "rate of return" on our "investment" in the military aid to egypt isn't high enough to continue it.
and our aid isn't to "take care of" egypt, it is to help keep peace in the middle east..which helps keep the oil flowing..which helps our economy. You want to see economic turmoil in our country, start a general war in the middle east and see what happens.
with our economy the way it is, thats just what we need to do is send some more money to the muslim morons rather than spend here where we need it???? to hell with america and americans, throw the money to the muslims, so they can send more suicide bombers around the countries????? what a bunch of morons our government is?>?>> they should all be hung! !! ! ! !
President Obama is requesting $1.55 billion in aid to Egypt, about 80 percent of it in the form of military assistance.......do we need to send more arms to Muslim Brotherdood???
we are sending aid to the military, who is obviously not a friend of the MB.
the only stablizing influence in Egypt is the military. with the army on our side and not on the side of the islamist brotherhood, there is no liklihood of Egypt becoming an al-Quida puppet. I do think F-16's are a little much. it puts them on a par with the IDF, unlrdd they are getting a stripped down version. not all F-16's are built the same, and not all pilots are trained the same.
"Note that Egypt’s new F-16C/Ds may be Block 52 aircraft, but they differ in one important respect from their counterparts in places like Singapore and Israel. Instead of relying on the modern, active-homing AIM-120 AMRAAM as their medium range air to air missile, Egypt’s F-16s depend on the older AIM-7P Sparrow. The Sparrow uses semi-active radar homing, which means the launching fighter needs to maintain a continuous illumination lock on the target aircraft. In contrast, an Israeli F-16i equipped with AMRAAM missiles can achieve lock, launch, then break lock and evade while the missile guides itself to the target."
and I think its safe to assume that their training and maintenance would be far inferior to isreal also.
It might be helpful to define what the military in Egypt exactly is for it is quite different than in the U.S. In the first place, it is a completely separate entity from the Executive, Legislative (Parliament), or Judicial branches of government here. It does not have a Commander in Chief like we do. Further it includes more than the Army, Navy, and Air Force. A visual would be that of an umbrella with each spoke one of the individual Services. However, there are many more spokes that fall under this umbrella. For example, the fire departments and EMS/Ambulances also fall under the Military umbrella. Further the police forces fall under this umbrella as well. The Police forces include the Antiquities Police, Riot Police, and Traffic Police. All these entities fall under the S.C.A.F (Supreme Council of Armed Forces) It is important to note the neutrality of the Military here. They cannot vote (they are ineligible). Further it is the duty of each male to do some form of Military Service or Civil Service before the age of twenty-seven (27) years. This service lasts one year. The Copts or others who are against war or military action (The Copts were pacifists up until now) serve their duty in Civil Servant positions such as the Fire Dept. or Ambulance Services. After their one (1) year they are free to either become active voluntary participants or can return to the private sector. There are A LOT of younger people serving in the military. Two years ago when the Mubarak regime fell, it was very symbolic when all the tanks turned their turrets simultaneously AWAY from the people. The people trust the military more than they do the President and Muslim Brotherhood. And it is the responsibility of the Military to keep the Egyptian PEOPLE safe. They answer to the people directly.
Further the Egyptian Air Force is very well trained for they train WITH our (the U.S.'s) Air force. It is very common to see bilateral desert maneuvers between the Americans and Egyptians. Alexandria and Port Said accommodate our Naval Vessels including a deep water port for our Air Craft Carriers. However, due to the issues in Port Said any American vessel was moved out to sea or transferred to Alexandria for safety and security reasons.
Finally, many of the Military Engineers (both Military and civil) go to Washington State for educational and air training.
I hope this helps people further understand the Military structure here.
In kind regards.
I apologize for I should have included the Militias in here too. In 1997 when Egypt kicked Al-Queada out of the country, they went into the outlying villages and hired (for a lack of a better word) some of the older men to maintain and keep their villages secure. And these men take their roles very seriously. They mostly protect the railroad systems, but they also will protect the people as well.
We pay large sums of money to each of the governments so that they do not fight with each other. Then enters the Muslim Brotherhood. All bets are off now. We can no longer say it has worked in the past and thus will continue to work.