Thomas Friedman, "Tanks, Jets or Scholarships?": Dumb!

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Tanks, Jets or Scholarships?" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/opinion/friedman-tanks-jets-or-scholarships.html), Thomas Friedman informs us from Amman, Jordan that he is continuing his "swing through the Arab world" and "spending as much time as I can with public schoolteachers and students — and young Arabs doing technology start-ups — and as little time as possible with officials." Ah yes, a man of the people.

And having spent this time with teachers and students, Friedman begins his essay be playing "numerology" with his readership:

"And so it came to pass that in 2012 — a year after the Arab awakening erupted — the United States made two financial commitments to the Arab world that each began with the numbers 1 and 3.

It gave Egypt’s military $1.3 billion worth of tanks and fighter jets, and it gave Lebanese public-school students a $13.5 million merit-based college scholarship program that is currently putting 117 Lebanese kids through local American-style colleges that promote tolerance, gender and social equality, and critical thinking. I’ve recently been to Egypt, and I’ve just been to Lebanon, and I can safely report this: The $13.5 million in full scholarships has already bought America so much more friendship and stability than the $1.3 billion in tanks and fighter jets ever will."

Well, anyone who reads this blog knows that I doubt the wisdom of the Obama administration's decision to continue to provide $1.3 billion in military aid to Egypt, when its military recently stood behind the arrest of 43 NGO workers, of whom 17 were American, engaged in democracy-building work. I also think it unwise to provide this military aid when the leading candidate in Egypt's presidential race said on Sunday that the Camp David peace accords between Egypt and Israel "are a historical document whose place is on the shelves of history" and labeled the agreements "dead and buried" (see: http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/leading-candidate-in-egypt-presidential-race-calls-israel-peace-accord-dead-and-buried-1.427323).

But how does Friedman compare US military aid to Egypt with a scholarship fund for Lebanese students? Praising "President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and the members of Congress who got this $13.5 million program going," Friedman fails to mention that the Obama administration is still also backing $100 million in annual military aid to Lebanon, notwithstanding the fact that Lebanon's government is controlled by Hezbollah, which was responsible for assassinating pro-Western Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005, and which was also responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing of the US Marines barracks in Beirut, which left 241 American soldiers dead.

Lebanese, particularly its growing Shiite population that is supported by social services provided by Hezbollah using funds from Iran, are going to "love" America owing to a $13.5 million scholarship program?

By the way, the proportion of civilian aid relative to military aid given by the US to Lebanon differs little from the proportion of civilian aid to military aid provided by the US to Egypt.

What do you think? I know what I think: Dumb! Swing on, Tom!