Planes, Tanks, and Automobiles

Well, Ok, no automobiles. The United States is giving Egypt 16 F-16 fighter jets, and 200 M1 Abrams tanks. Yes, "giving". This is part of an aid package ordered by the US government in 2010. Note the irony of a gift being ordered for a regime of which the US government would support the forceful overthrow the very next year. As we fast forward to 2013 the stability of Egypt is anything but certain.

In an interview with Telemundo last summer, Obama responded to questions about our relationship with Egypt in the aftermath of the mob assault on our Embassy in Cairo; “You know, I don’t think that we would consider them an ally but we don’t consider them an enemy,”. Great, as long as they're not an enemy, let's give them a few hundred million dollars worth of state of the art US military hardware. Frankly, I'm surprised that all of our other non-enemies aren't knocking the door down to get their handouts. We have allies that we don't treat as well.

Hosni Mubarak was an ally of the United States. His warts are undeniable, but we had a pretty clearly defined foreign policy regarding Egypt for many years. That foreign policy was focused on US interests for regional stability in an unstable part of the world. Morsi is an unknown quantity. His leadership since attaining office has been chaotic. In the past, Morsi has expressed the deepest hatred for Israel and her "supporters" (that'd be us). Egypt has seen ongoing domestic strife since the efforts to remove Mubarak from power began. The power structure in Egypt is oddly divided between the civilian government and the military. That division is still in the process of being worked out after the recent political changes.

The Obama administration has made multiple statements about Egypt needing time to stabilize. Following the assault on the US embassy in Egypt the administration made comments about being cautious while giving that stabilization a chance to occur. The caution in the administration's rhetoric is not visible in the administration's actions. The Muslim Brotherhood is a regional political power with a history of being at odds with US interests and policies. Caution should indeed be the word of the day in dealing with a country led by a man that made the following statement as recently as January 2010; "Dear brothers, we must not forget to nurse our children and grandchildren on hatred towards those Zionists and Jews, and all those who support them (that's us again). They must be nursed on hatred. The hatred must continue."

And the shipment of our gifted arms apparently "must continue" as well. I'm sure that the children nursed on hatred for the US and her allies will put those weapons to good use in the best interests of the US and her allies.