There are no good options on Egypt. The only leverage we have is the monetary aid which many politicians are calling on Obama to stop funding. Obama is reluctant to do this because in the short term it will have no effect on the Egyptian army but may have negative effect on us!
The problem with cutting off aid is that most of the money is in the form of a fund deposit which is used by the Egyptian army for the purchase of military hardware from U.S. manufacturers. So this will indirectly hurt U.S. businesses right away. But the Egyptian army may not need those arms right away. For example, they may not need to buy any sophisticated fighter jets to combat their own civilians right now. In the meanwhile Obama is getting lobbying pressure from arms manufacturers and the states where they are located. Given the minimal effect cutting off funding will have on the Egyptian army, it is no wonder that Obama is reluctant to cut off funding.
The reason that Egypt gets so much aid from the U.S. in the first place is because it made peace with Israel. But why do we supply arms to both Israel and Arab countries? In the past we had provided arms to the Shah of Iran, then Saddam Hussein to fight Iran, and the Afghans to fight the Soviets. And how did these aids help us? We would have been better off providing funds for Arab and Israeli youths to come to America as foreign exchange students. An Arab kid would stay with a Jewish family and vice versa. I believe that when these young people go back home, they will be less likely to be enemies of each other when they become adults. Some of these kids will become leaders of their homeland. Wouldn't that be better than giving both sides bombs?
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
2 comments:
Use the following html code to make a clickable link in your comment (instructions in the sidebar). You can test the link by previewing your comment.
<a href="http://angryyellowman.blogspot.com">Angry Yellow Man</a>
The above example will display as Angry Yellow Man
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with most of what you're saying. It reminds me of the Peace Camps that were set up for Israeli and Palestinian youth.
ReplyDeleteI remember hearing that the kids got along well and friendships were made. But then when they got home, things slowly changed back because of outside circumstances, like government propaganda, peer pressure.
Though I think it's still early to see if these camps were a success or failure, I guess we'll see. But since these kids were a small percentage of the population, you'd almost need something on a larger scale.
Therefore, as much as I like ideas like this and like yours, the pessimist in me thinks it won't work.
-LBOAYM
I am not saying that a lot of them will become peacemakers. But I think if we spend anywhere near what we are spending on arms aid, there will be some successes. The peace camps are small scale. But having a lot of students living and going school here for 1 year will give them a different perspective than living in Israel or an Arab country. Certainly giving both sides weapons will never lead to peace.
ReplyDelete