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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Why do we give F-16s to Egypt but refuse to sell F-16s to Taiwan?

The Soap Opera of foreign aid:  This all started with Camp David...
The Blogmocracy is correct:  Our foreign policy is schizophrenic...  We are giving* F-16s to the Muslim Brotherhood (who are in fact running Egypt right now) but there are efforts to block selling F-16s to Taiwan.  I understand the political pressure to keep the F-16 assembly line going, but do we have to give them away (especially to leaders who are openly hostile both to us and Israel)?

* why many of these transfers of F-16s are called sales to Egypt, they are actually gifts.  Our foreign aid to Egypt is mostly in the form of such "sales" and the debts later forgiven.

Update:  
An anonymous e-mailer said "They're payoffs to keep peace with Israel. Why do you pretend not to know the answer?"  That is of course true (and I am not pretending that is not the case).  I do not have a problem buying peace (sometimes that is the cheapest and best way to deal with something like this).  But when the Egyptian government changes from one under Sadat, to one under Mubarak, to one under Morsi/Muslim Brotherhood, we should adjust the payment to buy that peace.  Giving Egypt more F-16s may not be the smartest move.  At least we should condition such aid to agreed concessions by Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.  

But in the end, an F-16 is only as good as its pilot.  And I know Israel has better pilots than Egypt.  So if the peace fails and war does ever break out between Israel and Egypt again, I would not be surprised if Israel summarily destroys these various air bases as they did back in 50s, 60s and 70s.  
Photo taken by Israeli aircraft during 1967 Six Day War


Egyptian F-16s over Giza Pyramids

2 comments:

  1. The Egyptians are radical Muslims these days, bent on the destruction of The Great Satan (The US) and The Little Satan (Israel).

    Therefore it makes perfect sense that President Obama would make a present of F-16 aircraft to Egypt and deny Nationalist China (ROP) - Taiwan, who are our loyal and steadfast allies.

    I don't see any conflict of policy goals here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well said. I am not sure to laugh or cry at this. Maybe both.

      Delete

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