Military Aid to Egypt

While in Marrakesh, Morrocco today, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged $100 million in aid to the greater Muslim community to “boost ties” with the Muslim world, with a large portion of that undoubtedly going to Egypt, which has been ruled by a domestically unpopular autocratic regime for decades. For years, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has donated over $100 billion (adjusted for inflation) in military and economic assistance to help prop up the Egyptian government, more than any other nation besides Israel (I’m not gonna open that can of worms – at least not here).

What’s the reason for this? It’s complicated. Most Egyptians do not like their current government, and would like to see it opened up to real democracy (currently, the only candidate that is ever allowed on the presidential ballot is the current President, Hosni Mubarak). Further than that, most support a political organization called the Muslim Brotherhood, which engaged in terrorist activity in the 1950s but has long since become a reputable and legitimate political party with an Islamist ideology (Islamist does not mean that they are terrorists or that they necessarily want to implement rigid sharia law, but only that – like many Republicans and Democrats – they use their religion to guide their politics).

Despite the fact that the organization has been outlawed in Egypt (not because it’s dangerous, but only because it’s more popular than the president’s party), more than a dozen members have managed to get elected to the few national elected political positions not under the complete control of the president, showing just how widespread their support among average Egyptians is.

And it is precisely because of this perfectly legitimate and highly popular political organization that the United States continues to send $1.3 billion in military assistance every year to an undemocratic and autocratic regime with the excuse of “fighting terrorism” and “spreading democracy.”

This absurdly ironic situation needs to stop; the United States is only sending this money to Egypt because of their personal preferences in dealing with governments without Islamist leaders, and not in support of Democracy or against terrorism.

The United States should not send aid to “boost ties” with the Muslim community if that aid is only going to be used to oppress the majority of Muslims from expressing their political will at the ballot box.