Kerry and Foreign Aid to Egypt

[liberalpragmatist]

Kerry asserts in a Washington Post interview (this is from 2 months back) that he won't tie foreign aid to Egypt to economic and political reforms.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1443-2004May29_2.html

On Egypt, Kerry said that he would not tie foreign aid to greater openness and reform. "I would first want to link it to the warmth of the relationship with Israel and the effort to secure general stability in Middle East," he said. "You have to put your priorities first."

I agree with him up to a point. I do think that doing so right now, while Iraq is shit and while the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is boiling would be foolish. But I hope this doesn't mean we just keep propping up dictatorial Middle-Eastern regimes just b/c they're pro-US or just because we're worried about some instability. We have to minimize instability, but sometimes we have to be willing to accept SOME instability in order to make a more stable situation in the long-term.

I HOPE that Kerry will, once the overall situation is a little more stable, tie foreign aid to Egypt to greater reforms and openness. Ultimately, the Middle East needs Democracy and Human Rights if it's going to get out of the spiral of poverty, terrorism, and Islamic fundamentalism. I realize he probably can't do that immediately, but I hope that sometime during his Presidency he will do that.

[DrFunkenstein]

1. Compare Kerry's Statements On China (Great Insight Into His Thinking)

Here is an excerpt from a foreign policy article Kerry wrote at the beginning of Bush's term.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=416541

Kerry acknowledges that this crap is much more complicated than right- (and left-) wing demagogues would make it to score political points with their supporters.