The Obama Administration has determined that it's a great idea to sell Egypt 125 M1A1 Abrams battle tanks. Yes, we're selling offensive weaponry to a country where the situation could be described as 'fluid', no one really knows who will end up being in charge from week to week, and the popular consensus is for abrogating Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.
The deal is part of a $1.3 billion package that includes associated weapons, equipment, parts, training and logistical support. Since Egypt is essentially bankrupt, that cost is going to be borne by the American taxpayer.And the deal calls for a portion of the materials to be be produced in Egypt, so we're not even getting the benefit of putting a few Americans to work.
Egypt is a country unable to feed it's eighty million population, yet the US is 'selling' offensive weaponry like the Abrams tanks, 24 F-16 fighter jets, Hellfire missiles, Harpoon antiship missiles, TOW anti-tank missiles, Chinook transport helicopters and Apache attack helicopters.
One wonders who these armaments are designed to 'defend' against, since Egypt has no hostile states on its borders. Unless of course, come the September elections, a new president backed by a Muslim Brotherhood controlled parliament takes over and declares Israel a hostile state. In that case, this weaponry is going to be turned against Israel, supposedly a US ally!
This genuinely stupid deal still needs to be approved by Congress. Get busy and call, e-mail and fax your representatives. Aside from the fact that we shouldn't be subsidizing possible Egyptian aggression against Israel, we can't afford it.
Egypt big blablabla, will attack the Copts but never Eretz Israel
ReplyDeleteIts bad enough that they would attack the Copts but why wouldn't they attack Israel? These weapons have to be used for something. Egypt has no enemies who are threatening to attack it. They don't need these weapons to attack the Copts. They have plenty for that already. The only logical targets are America and Israel.
ReplyDeleteThese weapons combined with Egyptian military training and tactics which are far superior to America's would make these forces virtually unbeatable should they come in conflict with America. Furthermore we've trained them on our tactics. I doubt this training went both ways. In other words I doubt Egypt shared their tactics with us. Just how stupid are we?!!?
Israeli forces are better trained, better led, and more technologically savy than their American counterparts. Therefore I think the logical enemy they are focused on is America. Go after the easy target first. Once those targets are eliminated, then that frees up resources to go after the harder targets.
Is it wise to sell weapons to an enemy or potential enemy? I should think not but then it never was wise to be supporting Egypt with all the aid it received from us over many years. To continue aiding Egypt is to throw yet more good money after bad, so to speak.
In any event, not only can we not afford this, every thing we can manufacture needs to be deployed in America to defend America. Selling weapons to Egypt or any one else for that matter right now is a terrible idea.
Russia and China are the most powerful nations on earth, these countries are the dominant powers in Central and South America, and they don't like us very much!! As such, the wisest course of action would be to deploy every military asset we can possibly manufacture or otherwise get our hands on in America to give our warriors a fighting chance to defend our nation.