It’s not about Democracy: Top Ten Reasons Washington is Reluctant to cut off Egypt Aid [View all]

http://www.juancole.com/2013/08/democracy-washington-reluctant.html


It’s not about Democracy: Top Ten Reasons Washington is Reluctant to cut off Egypt Aid
Posted on 08/17/2013 by Juan Cole

~snip~

1. The US doesn’t give much aid to the Egyptian people per se. Only $250 mn a year out of $1.55 bn is civilian. The aid is to cement a relationship between the Egyptian officer corps and the Pentagon.

2. The military aid, $1.3 billion a year, is mostly in-kind, a grant of weaponry . It must be spent on US weapons manufacturers. It is US arms manufacturers like Lockheed-Martin and General Dynamics (and their employees) who would suffer if it were cut off.

3. The Congress gave the Egyptian Generals a credit card to buy weapons, and they’ve run up $3 billion on it for F-16s and M1A1 tanks. If the US cancelled aid, the US government would still have to pick up that bill.

4. Even most of the civilian aid is required to be spent on US goods and materiel. It is corporate welfare for the US