Egypt: Give 'Em An Inch -- And $1.3 Billion...
My dog is very well-behaved because when she's bad, she sees immediate consequences.
Our government, time and time again, seems incapable of learning to use simple behavioral lessons like this -- that you don't reward bad behavior. From the WaPo editorial board:
IT'S BEEN FIVE weeks since the Obama administration granted Egypt its full $1.3 billion in annual military aid despite its government's failure to meet conditions set by Congress for advancing democracy. In granting a waiver on national security grounds, administration officials argued that continuing the funding was more likely to encourage cooperation with the United States and progress on human rights than a cutoff would.As it turns out, the administration was wrong. In a number of tangible ways, U.S.-Egyptian relations and the military's treatment of civil society have deteriorated since the waiver was issued March 23. The threat to nongovernmental organizations, whose prosecution triggered the threat of an aid suspension, has worsened. Conditions for U.S.-backed pro-democracy groups elsewhere in the Middle East have deteriorated as other governments have observed Egypt's ability to crack down with impunity.
...U.S. officials argued that an aid cutoff might cause a dangerous political backlash in Cairo. But since the waiver was issued, Egypt's government-owned press, which is controlled by the military's intelligence agency, has continued a toxic campaign of anti-Americanism. The State Department also argued that aid should continue because Egypt had stuck to the 1979 Camp David agreements with Israel. But after the waiver, the government unilaterally canceled a deal under which it was supplying Israel with gas.
Though Egypt has scheduled a two-round presidential election for this month and next, it remains unclear whether a promised transition to democratic civilian rule by July 1 will take place. One thing is certain: The Obama administration has lost much of its leverage over the Egyptian military -- and its credibility with Egyptian democrats.
Continuing to behave like a beaten spouse is not good foreign policy. And especially not when we're trillions in the hole and well on our way to becoming China's bitch.
We will never be "China's bitch." They need us much more than we need them.
Crid at May 5, 2012 11:26 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/05/05/egypt_give_em_a.html#comment-3176081">comment from Cridhttp://usgovinfo.about.com/od/moneymatters/ss/How-Much-US-Debt-Does-China-Own.htm
You see any hint we're reforming our policy of going deeper and deeper into the hole? Paul Ryan's joke of a budget perhaps?
Amy Alkon at May 5, 2012 11:30 AM
Eh, Israel doesn't do what we ask them to either and we still fund them.
The whole region is made of unruly little states.
NicoleK at May 5, 2012 12:11 PM
I see us less as a battered spouse and more as a parent who doesn't know how to handle a toddler's public tantrum.
NicoleK at May 5, 2012 12:11 PM
So what? What do you think this indebtedness means? They've got nowhere else to go with their money.
They're doing everything they can, including (scorching the shit out of their own environment ) to make everything they want at the cheapest possible price, the profits for which are being spun back into the United States as fast as the trans-Pacific cables can carry them... All with an Africa's worth of poverty in their interior. They have essentially no international allies. They can't build a car anyone wants to buy.
What exactly are you afraid of them doing? What's their knight's move?
Crid at May 5, 2012 12:13 PM
Whoops, everything WE want. Sorry
Crid at May 5, 2012 12:13 PM
> more as a parent who doesn't know how to handle
> a toddler's public tantrum.
If only we could all be mature enough to be parents... Amirite?
Crid at May 5, 2012 12:18 PM
But yes, sending a billion to Egypt this year is just nuts, especially since he's said to have made $70 billion during his, um, reign.
This money is obviously being used to buy off some criminal enterprise, rather than improve the lives of people American's would hope to assist with this payout. Presumably there's someone in our government who's done the calculation and believes this can't be avoided.
By the way, who's in the White House this year? A Democrat? OK, just checking.
Crid at May 5, 2012 6:36 PM
"They can't build a car anyone wants to buy."
Why should they try to export? It's been just a few years since Ford, GM and Toyota (at least) opened plants on the mainland, hasn't it?
Radwaste at May 5, 2012 6:53 PM
My point exactly. For the rest of our lifetimes and beyond, much if not most of what they need will come from others. The lessons of the American West in the 1880s are not precisely transferable to the Takla Makan in the 2010's, but we're still going to be the source of almost everything good that happens to them for the rest of the century, if only by proxy (Hell-o Mr. Toyota!).
Many things can and will go wrong for the United States in the years ahead, but Bitchdom for the Chinese will not be one of them.
Quiz, no peeking: Name a Chinese brand. If you can do that, name a private one.
12 minutes PST to Supermoon
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at May 5, 2012 8:24 PM
Fugger...
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at May 5, 2012 8:41 PM
Western politicians do not understand, that with every cave-in they make, the eastern politicians are laughing at them, every single one,every single time.
Assholio at May 5, 2012 9:22 PM
If the most profound experience one has of the world comes in sixth grade, one will imagine foreign governments (or "eastern politicians") to be snickering like bullies in the locker room.
What's an "eastern politician"?
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at May 5, 2012 9:40 PM
You see any hint we're reforming our policy of going deeper and deeper into the hole? Paul Ryan's joke of a budget perhaps?
Amy:
If I owe you $5... Who is in charge of the relationship?
What if it's $50,000?
We owe China a lot right now - but that's a two-ended rope around the tiger's tail.
Unix-Jedi at May 7, 2012 10:39 AM
I think I agree with Uni.
China in 2012 calls to mind one of the earlier, shittier Star Trek movies, specifically this line from a floppingly-manboobed Captain Kirk: We've got him right where he wants us...!
Things are not going great on our planet.
But we're still the best. The United States has the biggest guns, the fastest planes, the smartest, meanest women, the biggest dicks, and the sharpest economy... We know things about courage, work, and hamburger that other nations just do not know.
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at May 7, 2012 5:58 PM
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