Obama Monopoly: Burn An American Embassy, Collect $450 Million!

 

I'm not kidding in the least.

Just days ago, our Cairo embassy was invaded and sacked by a mob while Egyptian security ttood by and watched. None of the perpetrators have been arrested and Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi took almost a week before issuing a pro forma grudging apology.

None of that matters.  President Obama wants to give his Muslim Brotherhood pals a special jirzyah of nearly half a billion dollars:

The Obama administration notified Congress on Friday that it would provide Egypt's new government an emergency cash infusion of $450 million, but the aid immediately encountered resistance from a prominent lawmaker wary of foreign aid and Egypt’s new course under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

The United States Agency for International Development notified Congress of the cash infusion on Friday morning during the pre-election recess, promptly igniting a smoldering debate over foreign aid and the administration’s handling of crises in the Islamic world.

An influential Republican lawmaker, Representative Kay Granger of Texas, immediately announced that she would use her position as chairwoman of the House appropriations subcommittee overseeing foreign aid to block the distribution of the money. She said the American relationship with Egypt “has never been under more scrutiny” than it is in the wake of the election of President Mohamed Morsi, a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Keep in mind that this is on top of all the aid we already give Egypt's Islamists.

This money is in addition to $1 billion worth of debt forgiveness, a $60 million 'investment fund' for Egyptian businesses that will mostly end up in the regime's pockets or go to well connected family with government granted monopolies, plus US intervention in getting Egypt a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, which is also primarily funded by the American taxpayer. Oh, and let's not forget an additional $1.3 billion in military aid, to help Egypt defend itself from all it's many enemies. Or more accurately, to build up its military for an attack on what Egypt considers its primary enemy, Israel.

Let's hope Rep. Granger sticks to her guns on this one., although the last time this happened President Obama used one of his famous executive orders to override a congressional hold on questionable aid to his Islamist friends.

Actually, we've been down this road before.


 


President Eisenhower tried it with Egypt's Gamal Abdul Nasser back in the 1950's,  when he likewise tried improving our relations with the Arab world by giving Egypt massive amounts of US economic and even military aid. You may remember, at that time the U.S. was not providing aid to Israel at all.

The idea President Eisenhower had was that he would bribe Egypt and other Middle East countries to keep the Soviets out, keep the Suez Canal open and the oil flowing. The Eisenhower Administration even gave  Nasser $3 million bribe to join a proposed Middle East Defense Organization along the lines of NATO; Nasser took the money, but then refused to join and the whole idea collapsed.

In the end,  Nasser simply played Eisenhower and his secretary of state John Foster Dulles against the Soviets as long as the money held out, and Egypt became a Soviet Client state when Eisenhower finally got tired of Nasser's lies and duplicity and refused to fund the Aswan Dam project.

For that matter, President Carter behaved similarly with Iran's Khomeini, figuring that his help in pressuring the Shah, getting Khomeini  permission to return to Iran with his followers and the promise of massive US aid  were going to buy America a friend. As you know, that did not end well.

Barack Obama isfollowng the same path, just to a more clueless degree. He idealizes Islamists like Mohammed Morsi and Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan and  imagines that by bribing the Islamists and distancing America from its ally Israel, the Islamists are going to turn into  America's friends and end their  idea of a new Caliphate.

As usual, the Islamists will take the infidel's money as long as he's stupid enough to keep handing it out, but in the end, Islam and hatred of the west trump everything else.

The appeasement mentality never really changes - just the names of the players do.