The United States is sending more than 20 F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian government as part of a $1 billion foreign aid package, despite the fact that mass protests have been revived following successive dictatorial measure by the newly elected President Mohammad Morsi.
Morsi just recently backed off a controversial decree immunizing himself from judicial scrutiny after Egyptians once again hit the streets to protest the executive overreach. But he then turned around and practically established martial law, granting the army the power to arrest civilians and prompting more outrage.
The US agreement to send Egypt the fighter jets was established in 2010, back when long-time US client dictator Hosni Mubarak still ruled. Despite the change in leadership – and despite the Egyptian government’s lamentable behavior since the revolution – Washington is going ahead with the aid package.
“The Obama administration wants to simply throw money at an Egyptian government that the president cannot even clearly state is an ally of the United States,” says Ileana Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).
“Should an overreaction [by Egypt] spiral into a broader conflict between Egypt and Israel, such a scenario would put U.S. officials in an embarrassing position of having supplied massive amounts of military hardware … to both belligerents,” said Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute. “Given Washington’s fiscal woes, American taxpayers should no longer be Egypt’s major arms supplier.”
The US is desperate to retain as much of its influence over Egypt and the rest of the Middle East as possible and so is perfectly willing to continue to arm and subsidize ugly regimes at the expense of the American taxpayer.
The other beneficiary, of course, is the military industrial complex – specifically Lockheed Martin, the corporation that makes the F-16s.
“This is a great day for Lockheed Martin and a testament to the enduring partnership and commitment we have made to the government of Egypt,” said John Larson, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s F-16 programs. “We remain committed to providing our customer with a proven, advanced 4th Generation multirole fighter.”
I wonder where those F-16 engines ended up that were snatched recently from an Israeli airbase…….
of course, makes perfect sense.
Selling Advanced combat jets are the best way to curry favor
with the average man and woman on the street.
The proof is how well that worked in Iran,,,
(sic)
Duh !
Oh, remember the Reagan AWACS surveillance aircraft sale to the Saudis back in the 1980's!
The combined sale of F-15 warplanes to Saudi Arabia in 2010 and these advanced F-16 models to Egypt make the Obama Administration the biggest arms merchant in history.
Strange world where they call it part of a Foreign Aid package.
The US government collects a billion dollars from the suffering US workers to give to General Dynamics to build F-16s for Egypt that the US government will never allow Egypt to use against the only nation that is an actual threat to Egypt. With a system like that, how the Egyptian government treats the Egyptian people could not be more irrelevant.
“This is a great day for Lockheed Martin…" gloats one of the members of the military-industrial complex.
It is a sad day for the world. The U.S. is flooding the world with arms ensuring that war will never stop.
The U.S. is run by a criminal cabal who won't stop until they control the world and impose '1984' upon everyone!
Of course it's a great day for Lockheed Martin- they get to unload even more of their 34 year old jets on a nation that doesn't need them.
There's a reason the US doesn't buy them any longer.