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Egypt
Aug 19, 2013 16:42:43 GMT
Post by woooooooo on Aug 19, 2013 16:42:43 GMT
No discussion of this? Slackers.
What a morass.
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Kulamata
Unemployed
Mane Man
Posts: 1,362
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Egypt
Aug 21, 2013 8:53:45 GMT
Post by Kulamata on Aug 21, 2013 8:53:45 GMT
I'm not sure there's anything we should do, and not much we can do. Cut the foreign aid has been suggested, but I don't think it would make any real difference.
It's their mess, and we're probably better off keeping our cuffs out of the mud, as our alternatives seem unhelpful at best.
Yuusuke???
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Egypt
Aug 21, 2013 9:51:23 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2013 9:51:23 GMT
Turns out the problem with most of the money is that it doesn't go directly to Egypt. Instead, it goes to American defense contractors who make hardware (tanks, planes, etc) which we then give to Egypt.
Only thing that comes to mind for me is to say "hey, bums, pay for the tanks and planes yourself from here on". But, it would still hit us in the bottom-line. Course, I don't think we should be giving military hardware to other nations anyway.
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Egypt
Aug 22, 2013 10:57:13 GMT
Post by tantalyr on Aug 22, 2013 10:57:13 GMT
The present Egyptian difficulties present a very thorny problem. Since the Camp David Accords, Egypt has been a lynchpin of the relative peace that the Middle East has enjoyed for almost forty years (there has been no war since the Accords). Since Egypt signed its peace treaty with Israel, no other Middle Eastern nation has sought to once again bring together a coalition to invade Israeli territory. And the U.S., Israel and most of the rest of at least the Western world would like to keep it that way.
Sure, the Egyptian military's ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood's democratically-elected government was indeed a coup, thus supposedly triggering the American law requiring immediate suspension of aid to the country. But--and this is a BIG but--an Islamist government ruling Egypt did not, does not and will never bode well for Middle East peace or stability. Hard core Islamists are no friends of Israel, and such an Egyptian government is more likely than not to renounce the Accords at some point. That's not a good thing to look forward to.
So yes, the Egyptian military is hardly democratic and is cracking down hard on dissidents (mostly supporters of the Brotherhood). But I'm reminded of Harry Truman's famous response when told that the then ruler of Greece was a ruthless dictator: "He may be a sonuvabitch, but he's OUR sonuvabitch!"
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Egypt
Sept 4, 2013 11:56:38 GMT
Post by Yuusuke on Sept 4, 2013 11:56:38 GMT
I'm not sure there's anything we should do, and not much we can do. Cut the foreign aid has been suggested, but I don't think it would make any real difference. It's their mess, and we're probably better off keeping our cuffs out of the mud, as our alternatives seem unhelpful at best. Yuusuke??? Oh, hi... um... this, like the more current Syria intervention-to-be-or-not-or-something, is something I'm not really willing to go into detail about. But one should consider the simple economic facts when talking about the SCAF takeover of the Egyptian government: The country is an economist's worst nightmare. They need something absurd (like US$50b a year) in foreign currency just to pay the minimum bill for energy and food imports, the rounds of insurrection and counterinsurrection have destoyed the one foreign currency earner they have (tourism) and no one, absolutely no one, was willing and able to grant or lend such to a MB-led government. The Saudis are just about the only source that would and could, and they are blood-enemies of the MB for obvious reasons. So, unless you feel like inviting ~80 million starving Egyptians into your home pretty much the only other choice is to politely ask the Saudis who they want running Egypt, and then let run what needs to be done for that to happen. There is a lot more, but that's sort of where things are. The generals that make up SCAF will collectively do what 'needs' to be done. Like Tant mentions about "sonuvabitches", just with slightly different ownership.
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