Saturday, September 29, 2012

Obama Foreign Policy: Naive and Dangerous

Those who read this blog were informed almost immediately that the deadly attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi and embassy in Cairo were anything but spontaneous. On September 12 I wrote (http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2012/09/gail-collins-mitts-major-meltdown.html):

"Make no mistake about it: The movie 'Innocence of Muslims' was a disinformation exercise, timed around 9/11, intended to exacerbate Arab rioting that had been scheduled in advance. Worse still, the global media, hungry for a story, quickly cooperated by publicizing all of the story's false threads."

Nevertheless, the Obama administration chose to pretend that the attacks had been "spontaneous" in respose to this silly excuse for a film.

Well, yesterday the US Director of National Intelligence finally got around to acknowledging that the attacks had indeed been "deliberate and organized" (see: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444712904578024684208469470.html).

Concerning the attack on the US embassy in Cairo, Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood president, Mohamed Morsi, stated to The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/world/middleeast/egyptian-leader-mohamed-morsi-spells-out-terms-for-us-arab-ties.html?pagewanted=all):

"'We took our time' in responding to avoid an explosive backlash, he said, but then dealt 'decisively' with the small, violent element among the demonstrators.

'We can never condone this kind of violence, but we need to deal with the situation wisely,' he said, noting that the embassy employees were never in danger."

The US embassy employees were "never in danger"? Yeah, right.

So how is the Obama administration handling this affront? Simple. Obama and friends are now seeking to provide Egypt with an emergency cash grant of $450 million. As reported by The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/29/world/middleeast/white-house-move-to-give-egypt-450-million-in-aid-meets-resistance.html):

"In recent weeks, negotiations over the assistance picked up pace, and the administration decided to provide $450 million instead, including $190 million immediately, because the country’s economic crisis has become acute, with an estimated budget shortfall of $12 billion.

. . . .

In addition to the $1 billion in assistance, the administration is working with Egypt to provide $375 million in financing and loan guarantees for American financiers who invest in Egypt and a $60 million investment fund for Egyptian businesses. All of that comes on top of $1.3 billion in military aid that the United States provides Egypt each year."

Although Obama recently acknowledged that Egypt is not an American ally (see: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gwEQ3WzDMvnIDbKF5ZQGAyA59Qfw), and notwithstanding America's current economic crisis, the president feels compelled to shower Morsi with money?

In which fantasy world are Obama and Hillary living?

2 comments:

  1. Jeff, what is your view of the consequences if Obama cut off all foreign aid to Egypt? Would Israel be in favor of that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good question.

    I think it is important to differentiate between civilian and military aid. When even Obama no longer believes that Egypt is an American ally, is it prudent to provide the Egyptian army with $1.3 billion annually? Whereas in the past there was friction between Egypt and Libya, this is no longer the case. True, the Egyptian army recently stepped in and subdued "Jihadists" in Sinai, does this necessitate such an enormous sum to maintain a vast standing army?

    Without a doubt, Israel would probably sigh with relief if the military aid was converted into civilian aid.

    ReplyDelete