U.S. Military Aid to Egypt: An IV Drip, With Side Effects

Since President Obama scrapped the U.S. military’s role in September’s Bright Star joint training exercise with the Egyptian military last Thursday because of the government’s killing of close to 1,000 protesters, attention has shifted to his refusal to cut off the $1.3 billion in military aid Washington gives to Cairo each year.

We’re not talking pocket change here. A June congressional assessment suggested that “U.S. military aid covers as much as 80% of the Defense Ministry’s weapons procurement costs.”

It’s probably fair to think of the continuing aid as an IV – but instead of an intravenous drip delivering life-saving medicine to an ailing patient, it’s closer to an influence vaccination designed to keep Egypt’s generals under some – increasingly limited – sway of the U.S. government.

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