Fight looms in U.S. Congress over aid to Egypt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top Democratic lawmaker vowed to slash some of the $1.7 billion in aid to Egypt approved by a House panel on Friday as part of a foreign aid bill as Congress voiced growing irritation over Cairo's democratic setbacks. The $20.7 billion foreign aid bill approved by a House of Representative Appropriations subcommittee contained the full amount the Bush administration sought for Egypt.
But subcommittee acted a day after the United States condemned Egypt for keeping opposition leader Ayman Nour in prison and accused the government of using harsh tactics against people demonstrating on his behalf.
Since 1979, the United States has pumped more than $60 billion of aid into Egypt, but many Republicans and Democrats are growing impatient with Cairo over the slow pace of democratic reform.
Earlier in the week, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch urged lawmakers to maintain Egypt's aid, calling Cairo a "formidable partner" in fighting terrorism. More...
posted by Freedom For Egyptians @ 12:25 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Hmm..
Interesting.
How dependent is the Egyptian economy on the annual 1.7 billion dollars in US aid?
What would happen to the Egyptian economy if this aid was drastically slashed?
How would Egypt look without the US economic aid?
Would the country (or its economy) survive...?
Would mubarak be able to pay his security to kick the living shit out demonstrators !!! Would the thugs do it for less money ?
Is the US economic package justifiable to the Americans themselves, or logical or even morally defensible?
At the time of Camp David Egypt was the only regional country to recognise 'and' sign a peace with Israel so back then this was groundbreaking.
Today even the Saudis have a plan to recognise Israel and establish full diplomatic relations!
Jordan is a major peace partner and QIZ participant, Mauritania has diplomatic relations with Israel, as do Tunisia and Morocco and Qatar and Oman (each with their own different degree of representation and intimacy).
In today's world why on earth would the US be giving so much aid to Egypt at the expense of the Zambia's of the world???!!!
The US economic aid package allows Egypt to punch beyond its realistic (ie. much more modest) regional, geo-strategic, economic and military weight.
It's 2006 not 1978!
Who can tell us about how Egypt's poor are doing and how they've been able to better themselves over the past 25 years?
Does Egypt provide assistance to the poor so that they can empower themselves within a meritocratic society?
Or is Egypt a place where the system suggests that the poor, the fallaheen and the people in the sa'eed and the Nubians and Bedouins are genetically predisposed towards backwardness, and wouldn't be able to handle development and poverty alleviation if they tried?
That having been said, what is the proportion of Egypt's poor as compared to certain countries in Sub-Saharan Africa?
I've read that in terms of battling illiteracy amongst the under-privileged Egypt has not done particularly well.
The question remains:
Is the US aid to Egypt justifiable to the Americans themselves in geo-strategic and moral terms?
I really don't think so...
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