Andrew Sullivan speaks about the USAID to Egypt

The USAID to Egypt will be cut to $1.5 billion this year. The debate about the  aid to Egypt is more controversial in Egypt more than the United States. It is logic that the Americans begin to wonder about their tax money and where it goes in this terrible recession they are facing.

Andrew Sullivan is speaking about the aid to Egypt , America’s alley in the region where he is comparing the size of the aids we received especially the  military aids with the aids Israel received.Of course one of his readers left this very interesting comment about Egypt strategic uses. This comment summarizes the cards Mubarak is playing with , it is not about the aid only , it is about the chair only.

For me I think we can make it without the aid very well , this country has lots of welfare and wealth more than you can imagine. If you have a a real transparent democratic system that allows accountability and fights corruption, you will not need the America aid.

Another point mentioned in the comment is the military aid to the Egyptian Army , I like the description of the corrupted army officers. I do not like the fact that we depend most of the time on the American arms and I feel comfortable when I read in the newspaper that Mubarak decided to buy arms from Russia or from France , I do not like putting all our eggs in one basket , we will be repeating the mistake of the 6 days war when the regime then depended on the Soviet arms alone, which were old , too old then. The Americans do not and won’t give the same arms they give to Israel , we will be naive if we think so and that’s why we should diversify our arms resources , in fact I hope that this is what the army is doing now.

Sometimes I feel that we are taking an aid that we do not really deserve ,there are other people and countries in the world that in a desperate need for this aid , in fact the American people need this aid more than anyone with their terrible economy. Please do not look to me like a crazy person but I know what I am talking about , it is not about the Egyptian National pride many nationalists feel when they speak about the American threats or rather the American blackmail to cut the aid. I am speaking about a country full of resources more than you can imagine , I am speaking about brains full of potentials more than you can imagine.Believe me this is not romantic talk , this serious talk.

If you reclaim that area near the north coast and that area in the south near the borders as it should , you will not need to import wheat.

If you fight corruption in the regime and in the country as it should ,you will have enough money to have better education and better health care, in fact you can have surplus

One day this aid will stop ‘hopefully soon’ , we will be fine without it and we must be ready for this day.

If you think that this aid is a bribe to keep Egypt from attacking Israel , well technically we do not need this bribe because I am sure the Egyptian people prefer to build their country than to attack other countries , this is a myth and illusion I am afraid.

BY the way Dear Maryanne wrote about the American aid program in Egypt and how her late husband used the aid funding to buy equipments for his companies in Egypt.

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