US reviews Egypt aid as Arab nations pour $12 billion into post-Morsi regime

[ellenrr]

Source: NBC news

U.S. aid to Egypt was formally put under review Thursday in the wake of last week’s military-backed power shift as Arab nations rushed to pledge $12 billion to the country's new government.

"Given the events of last week, the president has directed relevant departments and agencies to review our assistance to the government of Egypt," the Pentagon said in a statement.

It marks a policy shift by the Obama administration, which said on Monday that suspending the annual $1.5 billion support to Cairo “would not be in the best interests” of the U.S.

However, the slated U.S. delivery of four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt in the coming weeks was still "scheduled as planned," senior U.S. officials said.

Read more: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/11/19411926-us-reviews-egypt-aid-as-arab-nations-pour-12-billion-into-post-morsi-regime

[wordpix]

1. the coup is a great excuse NOT to send anymore money ---US debt is nearing $17 trillion

http://www.usdebtclock.org/

I realize $1.5 billion is only a drop in the bucket, but why are we supporting nations around the world when we're not even supporting our own? Detroit's impending bankruptcy is a case in point, as are: falling apart infrastructure, Superfund and other environmentally contaminated sites that aren't cleaned up, 7.5% unemployment, high truancy rates in inner city public schools, lack of care for the mentally ill (some of whom have access to guns and engage in mass killings), rising prison populations, nuclear energy sites that need to be decontaminated...We've got plenty of problems of our own that $1.5 billion would help cure.

[pampango]

2. I thought Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia were known for funding religious fundamentalists. Why

are they rushing to help an Egypt that just overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government which many Egyptians thought was too fundamentalist?

[wordpix]

3. probably due to power vacuum and supporting "their" preferred candidates/parties

Another reason we shouldn't get involved. We've got enough problems of our own with money in politics, now we've got to figure out who to support with our aid in Egypt?

NO!

[another_liberal]

5. Morsi was democratically elected is why.

If democracy ever really takes hold in the Arab World, the oil-rich, divine-right kingdoms of the Middle East, such as Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia, would very soon be history.

[Comrade Grumpy]

6. The Saudis supported the Salafist Al Nour party.

Some of those Egyptians who thought it wasn't fundamentalist enough.

Al Nour was going to be part of the post-coup government, but I think they pulled out after the massacre at the Republican Guard headquarters.

[ConcernedCanuk]

7. can you spell

.
.
.

O I L ??

CC

[Alamuti Lotus]

9. There is a fierce division between Saudi- and Qatari-funded camps

I think you are greatly oversimplifying matters to just boil it down to "religious fundamentalists", as if they are some single united front in such regards. Historically, the Muslim Brotherhood has never been friendly to Saudi interests--Sayyid Qutb and Hasan al-Banna were early ideological rivals to Saudi-funded Wahhabiyyah and the Ikhwan has remained such ever since. Recently (last several years), the Ikhwan has been the organization adopted by the Qatari monarchy to advance its interests in the region, primarily using al-Jazeera and their famous televangelist-for-hire Sheikh Yusef Qaradawi (imagine Pat Robertson if he rented his services out to government power) to promote the party internationally.

The Qataris and Saudis agree on incitement and massacres against Shiites and pursuing aggression against Iran, and both operate under the aegis of the US, but find common ground on little else. The rivalry between the Saudi and Qatari dynasties (emphasis on the nasty) is a key factor in the overthrow of the Mursi and the present events in Egypt. The Qatari dictatorship is reputed to have spent nearly $17 billion in recent years to advance the Brotherhood in Egypt and Syria, and elsewhere, during the present so-called "Arab Spring" events. Correspondingly, in Egypt the Saudis backed salafist sheikhs grouped around the al-Nour party and remnants of the Mubarak deep state, both of which presently dominate affairs in post-coup Egypt.

[bemildred]

10. Thank you.

I've been wondering about that. I mean it was clear all was not well on the Sunni side of the street, but whom and why was not so clear.

[another_liberal]

4. Review! We should have already sent their ambassador packing.

Egypt's so-called government is nothing but a coup-installed, military dictatorship. Why in hell are we giving them U. S. tax dollars? This is disgraceful!

[kelliekat44]

8. Good. Stop our aid and let the Arabs subsidize Egypt. win-win

[Major Hogwash]

11. $1.5 billion, that's all??

Doesn't sound like much support at all.