Pumping more money into Middle East would be an unwise, costly idea
Even after paying for the largest army on the African continent, Egypt’s military still has enough money to invest in or purchase various businesses — it owns everything from weapons manufacturers to pasta makers. If you’d call it a day after purchasing your supplies, the companies that make your supplies, and the companies that supply the companies that make your supplies, then you couldn’t work for the Egyptian military — they use their leftover funds to do things the government (which is too busy spending money on subsidies to special interests, and on the military of course) would regularly be doing like building bridges and providing food in times of famine.
Speaking of the economic problems of the Egyptian government, it’s worth noting that they are in near crippling debt (79 percent of their GDP) and have had to cut total spending by 10 percent of their total expenditures each of the last two years in hopes of getting that debt under control (for comparison, our Federal Government sequestration cuts were about 3 percent of total spending). With so little money to go around, where does the money come from for such a large military?
The short answer to that question is us, at least in part. Last year, the United States sent 1.3 billion dollars to Egypt specifically for “military aid”in addition to humanitarian aid. While that amount may be a drop in the bucket for the US military, it ultimately means that we’re paying for almost 30 percent of Egypt’s 4.4 billion dollar annual military costs.
If you think it’s crazy that we’re spending over a billion dollars a year to fund a military coup, you’re not alone. Recently Senator Rand Paul sponsored an amendment that would spend the military aid we send to Egypt next year (which will increase to 1.5 billion) on bridges and other infrastructure here in America instead of tanks over in Egypt. In speaking in favor of the bill, Paul cited a law that specifically prevents the United States from sending any military aid to a country whose government had been ousted by their military. Apparently 86 senators (including both Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott from here in South Carolina) would prefer to spend your money buying guns for Egypt instead of building roads for Americans, as the amendment failed 86-13.
In every peaceful, stable democratic country across the globe the government controls the military, but in Egypt the military controls the government. The military has taken the power from the hands of the people and put it into the hands of a few high ranking generals, a dubious idea no matter what you think of Morsi as president. This precedent of military overtaking democracy is even more dangerous when you consider Egypt’s recent position as a role model for other Middle Eastern countries — the so called “Arab Spring” revolutionary movement that swept across the region started in Tunisia and spread to almost a dozen nations (with varying success) and is still active today in several of those countries.
Woe unto the entire Middle East if Egypt’s military coup is even half as communicable as their revolution two years ago was. Woe unto America if the trampled people under Egypt’s military dictatorship discover who’s fitting the bill and decide to strike back against the financiers of their oppressors, for then the price of our military “aid” to Egypt will be paid not in American dollars, but in American blood.