McCain, Paul: The U.S. Must Halt Aid To Egypt

[@PersonalLiberty]

07.08.13 09:01 PM

Egypt is in disarray as the Barack Obama-backed Muslim Brotherhood government is being pushed from power by the nation’s military. The uprisings, according to many foreign policy experts, are yet another example of how dangerous American meddling in Mideast affairs is to any measure of true democracy.

Members of the press in the United States have called the uprising an assault on democracy. But reports often leave out the fact that, while President Mohammed Morsi was supposedly elected by popular vote, he ruled the nation with a theocratic iron fist. Perhaps a result of the Western mainstream’s apparent fear of criticizing Islam, atrocities against liberty have gone largely unreported since Morsi took the seat of power.

News outlets, including the BBC, Bloomberg and The Associated Press, have covered the military uprisings with near sympathetic tones toward Muslim Brotherhood leadership, attributing its undemocratic style of leadership to the deeply entrenched religious beliefs of its members.

The Obama Administration lauded the original movement that brought Morsi to power, and it never made any meaningful attempt to condemn his rapid centralization of power. Instead, while pushing domestic policy initiatives full of social liberalism at home, the White House continued a policy of pumping $1.5 billion annually into a country that, with Sharia as a justification, has a horrible human rights record since the Morsi government took hold.

If nothing else, the coup in Egypt shows the true goal of all Mideast foreign policy: perpetual destabilization by way of puppetry. So even as the nation is in the throes of what could lead to another revolution, the United States is opting to continue pumping money into the region in order to ensure that whoever is eventually declared as Egypt’s rightful leader remains a puppet to the United States with the promise of wealth.

In a contribution to The Washington Times over the weekend, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) expressed deep opposition to continued U.S. aid to Egypt:

In Egypt, protest is met with tear gas, manufactured in America and paid for with American taxes. When Egyptians protest, they protest against their government and also America for subsidizing that government.

Despite the fact that Mohamed Morsi recently convicted 16 Americans of political crimes in a show trial, the Obama administration still sent them over $2 billion this year.

American tax dollars flow no matter which despot rules.

Hosni Mubarak brutally suppressed protest over three decades of martial law. Yet, we sent him some $60 billion, much of which was stolen by Mr. Mubarak and his family.

Mr. Mubarak abused his citizens and his own power, yet we gave him billions of dollars and advanced weaponry, including F-16 jets. Mr. Mubarak would eventually use those jets to intimidate the protesters who would eventually end his regime.

Today, we give the same billions and fighter jets to Mr. Mubarak’s successor, Mr. Morsi, who the protesters now see in the same light as Mr. Mubarak.

But worse, due to our aid and support, Egyptians see Mr. Morsi and America as the same.

Some American politicians never know when to say no. Three prominent interventionists called for arming Moammar Gadhafi the year before they called for arming the Libyan Islamists rebels who overthrew Gadhafi. Which Islamic rebels killed the American ambassador? No one seems to know and no one has been brought to justice. Often, today’s “rebels” can become tomorrow’s tyrants, and vice versa.

Paul has sometimes been alone in his calls for ending U.S. aid to foreign nations, but this time he isn’t. Even Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), a perpetual neocon always up for a bit of good ole America intervention, believes that the United States is playing a dangerous game by pumping billions of dollars into Egypt.

He said in a statement:

I have always said that democracy is about more than elections, and I have consistently urged the Egyptian military to serve as the guarantor of Egyptian democracy and the protector of the Egyptian nation. I understand that the military’s removal of Morsi from office was undertaken with broad public support in the name of democracy and could ultimately lead Egypt to a more inclusive and representative civilian government. However, it is difficult for me to conclude that what happened was anything other than a coup in which the military played a decisive role. Current U.S. law is very clear about the implications for our foreign assistance in the aftermath of a military coup against an elected government, and the law offers no ability to waive its provisions. I do not want to suspend our critical assistance to Egypt, but I believe that is the right thing to do at this time.

While the debate is still in the air as to whether the popular support for the Egyptian military’s actions could be reason to consider the recent events something other than a military coup, many people are of the mind that the United States is doing more harm than good by continuing to pump aid money into the region. This, however, is not the view of the White House.

“It is not in our interest in moving particularly quickly” *in changing the situation in Egypt, White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Monday. He added that the government overthrow is a “charged” issue for tens of millions of Egyptians who have differing views on what happened.

Currently, Carney stressed, “the U.S. is not aligned with — nor is it supporting — any particular political party or group” in the nation.

But some advocates of cutting Egyptian aid argue that continuing aid that could potentially again fall into the hands of oppressors simply is not in the best interest of the United States. Egypt’s people will not forget who funded their oppressors. And as we have learned with our other Mideast misadventures, that increased anti-American sentiment is certain to breed terrorists who will later feel compelled to inflict the same pain on the American people that they have felt in their homeland.




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