Military uprising highlights inadequacies
The recent military uprising in Egypt that resulted in the removal of President Mohammed Morsi provides a good backdrop in which to access whether or not the US should have been providing any aid to Egypt over the past year. After looking at the facts the U.S. should have never been providing aid to Egypt in the first place due to the country’s unstable nature for the past couple of years.
Since President Hosni Mubarak was forced to resign in 2011 the U.S. has supported the cause of the Egyptians as they tried to become a more democratic nation. However, when Secretary of State John Kerry and the U.S. pledged to release $250 million of economic aid in March, just a fraction of the $1.3 billion the United States sends to Egypt annually, many questioned the decision. Critics of aid to Egypt believed that the U.S. was simply supplementing another unstable middle-eastern country.
This truth has become apparent over the weekend when President Morsi was forced out by the Egyptian military. The military says it was simply “acting at the request of the people.”
This just highlights the instability of Egypt, and suggests how the country may not be fully equipped to handle the struggles of a newly democratic nation. The aid the U.S. was sending to Egypt during the past two years has unfortunately only reinforced the countries erratic behavior. It should be concerning to all that the U.S. is aiding and supporting some countries that may not be interested in democracy and freedom.