Saturday, January 29, 2011

US gives $1.3 billion per year to Egypt

and that's just military aid. It's been that way since 1979, after Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel. I wonder how many American dollars actually help the Egyptian people.

"The United States provides $1.3 billion a year in military financing for Egypt. According to the State Department's 2010 budget request, the aid is used to help strengthen and modernize the Egyptian army."

The US has given Egypt $68 billion since 1948.

This was published in 2003: "Egypt, the largest recipient of U.S. aid among Arab Leaguers, is not immune to Middle East malaise. Hosni Mubarak took power after the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981 and has run a virtual one-party shop. Opposition parties can exist. Outright opposition, however, is not tolerated. In the streets Egyptians speak cautiously about their ruler. Most welcome clampdowns on Muslim Brotherhood and others with suspected terrorist ties. Less welcome are arrests of democracy advocates and Christian converts."

3 comments :

C.H. said...

The fact that Egypt hasn't attacked Israel is at least one good thing the aid has done for the Egyptian people.

C.H. said...

Its interesting that with all the footage and coverage of these rallies, there hasn't been a single scene of protesters burning an Israeli flag.

Don Cox said...

I think the really remarkable thing is that nobody is worried that there could be a communist takeover. That shows how the world has changed since the days of Nasser.