Obama Weighs Egypt Aid Suspension

[Comrade Grumpy]

Source: Associated Press

(WASHINGTON) — U.S. officials say President Barack Obama‘s top national security aides have recommended that the U.S. suspend hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Egypt in response to the Egyptian military’s ouster of the country’s first democratically elected leader.

Such a step would be a dramatic shift for an administration that has declined to label Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi‘s July 3 ouster a coup and has argued that it is in U.S. national security interests to keep the aid flowing. It would also likely have profound implications for decades of close U.S.-Egyptian ties that have served as a bulwark of security and stability in the Middle East.

The officials say the recommendation has been with Obama for at least a week but they don’t expect him to make a decision until after the full Congress votes on his request for authorization for military strikes on Syria, which is not expected before Monday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations.

The U.S. provides Egypt with $1.5 billion a year in aid, $1.3 billion of which is military assistance. The rest is economic assistance. Some of it goes to the government and some to other groups. Only the money that goes to the government would be suspended. Obama will have to decide how much aid will be suspended, but the officials said the recommendation calls for a significant amount to be withheld. The money could be restored once a democratically elected government is returned.

<snip>

The administration determined that it was not in the U.S. national interest to determine whether a coup had taken place, as such a designation would have required it to suspend all but humanitarian assistance to Egypt. It did delay the delivery of some fighter planes, but, as Egypt’s military began a heavy-handed crackdown on Morsi supporters — despite U.S. appeals for restraint — the president’s advisers started to consider more muscular action. Obama then cancelled a joint military exercise and announced a new review of assistance.



Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/09/04/obama-weighs-egypt-aid-suspension/#ixzz2dzmFDNrQ

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2013/09/04/obama-weighs-egypt-aid-suspension/

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Cutting assistance to the junta is the correct action.

But I get the sense they're almost doing it out of embarrassment. It would look pretty tacky to be bombing one dictator for killing a few hundred of his people while continuing to give hundreds of millions in aid to a coup that just gunned down hundreds of people in the streets.

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Ahh, more money for bombing Syria.

[Scootaloo]

2. Well, whatever the reason it's a good move

And should be paired with pressure to reinstate the Morsi government. Just 'cause he's an asshat we don't like does not mean that he was not duly elected by the people of Egypt. if they have a problem with him, that's frankly not something for the military to solve - much less solving by liquidating the entire political party and executing its voters in the street.

[David__77]

3. Stupid move.

I have no problem with cutting aid to Egypt, because it didn't need to be there in first place! However, the rationale for doing so at this time is, in my opinion, misguided. The current government is not fundamentally different than the last in any appreciable aspect. Well, except now it is not support jihad against other countries.

[Downwinder]

4. It is hard to complain about Syria killing people

When you are subsidizing Egypt killing people.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

5. When has the American government had a problem subsidizing despots killing their people?

Suharto, Sukarno, Rhee Syungman, Augusto Pinochet, Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein (back in the 1980s), Ngo Dinh Diem, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, King Abdullah

Why not start targetting all despots, American government? Omar Al-Bashir has been the butcher of Darfur for years, Isaias Afewerki supports Islamic terrorism, Islam Karimov boils people alive, Alexandr Lushenko who throws dissenters into prison gulags, Kim Jung Un and all his oppression, Teodoro Mbasogo who is accused of cannibalizing his political oppoents. . .and let's not forget American's favorite dictator, Hamid Karzi, who has really never faced an election that wasn't rigged.

Bashir Al-Assad is scum, but if the American government is going to be the world's policeman, start by taking out the trash of long time despots, not just the one with oil reserves (like Libya and Syria).

OR better yet. . .STOP FUCKING FIGHTING OTHER COUNTRY'S CIVIL WARS!!!!

[Nihil]

6. +1

I have disagreed with you on some topics (and no doubt will continue to do so in the future)
but I agree with every word in that post.

[classysassy]

7. Support of terrorism in the middle east

We continue to support the terrorist state of Israel, they pose the greatest threat in the region.Our congress and the oval office are owned by AIPAC and its allies.