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Mubarak’s last laugh

My friends at the New York Times are repeating their call to cut off military aid to Egypt in response to yesterday’s “madness” (and proposing cancellation of military exercises as well).  Until now I’ve opposed cutting off aid, but the time has come.  Washington should suspend both military exercises and aid, while sustaining civilian assistance, pending return to civilian rule.  Doing anything less will signal approval of a murderous and unjustified attack by the Egyptian security forces as well as the military’s continuing hold on power.

I hasten to add that it won’t do much good.  As Eric Trager has noted (unfortunately behind the Wall Street Journal paywall, so don’t expect a link), the Egyptian army regarded the Muslim Brotherhood challenge to the military coup as an existential one.  Our $1.3 billion just does not outweigh an existential challenge.  General Sissi has surely calculated that he would lose this money if he cracked down.  He went ahead anyway.  No one should expect him to have any regrets.  He is far more likely to denounce the US for hypocrisy for not supporting his war on terror and to look for additional support from the Saudis, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, Gulf states that have already ponied up pledges of well over $10 billion. Read more