President Obama’s decision to reduce
but not terminate military aid to Egypt is a measured attempt to
protect American interests in a tumultuous region while affirming the
president’s support for democracy. One message is that the relationship
between the two countries remains crucial to regional stability. The
other is that America cannot sit by while the Egyptian Army tramples on
Egypt’s political opposition, foments violence and turns increasingly
authoritarian, thus ensuring further turmoil.
Whether partial measures will be a sufficient warning to the generals is
unclear, especially now that senior American officials have said the
decision to reduce aid is “not meant to be permanent.” But if the
military insists on its repressive path, Mr. Obama will have to go
further.
At least for now, the generals, who have benefited most from the aid
that has flowed to Egypt since the 1979 peace treaty with Israel, will
be deprived of some of their favorite military toys. The big-ticket
items to be delayed include Apache helicopters, Harpoon missiles, M1-A1
tank parts and F-16 warplanes, as well as $260 million earmarked for the
general Egyptian budget. Joint military exercises had already been
canceled.
However, money for Egyptian counterterrorism programs and for efforts to
protect Egypt’s borders and secure Sinai, where the army is engaged in a
crackdown on Islamic militants, will continue. So will funding for
education, health care and business-development programs that directly
improve the lives of the Egyptian people. The delivery of spare parts
for many of the American-supplied weapons in Egypt’s arsenal will not be
interrupted.
After acquiescing in the coup in July against Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s
first freely elected president, the United States has criticized the
alarming moves toward a military-police state by the generals and the
civilian government they installed, but it has been slow to take
concrete steps to protest these moves. The moves include the ruthless
suppression of Muslim Brotherhood allies, a nationwide state of
emergency and the rounding up of other dissenters — all on top of the
crackdown on demonstrators after the coup, which killed more than 1,000
people.
Most Egyptians did not envision that kind of country when they threw out
Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and elected Mr. Morsi. Mr. Obama did not speak
out forcefully enough when Mr. Morsi himself veered off course by
pushing through a deeply polarizing constitution asserting
near-dictatorial powers. That was in part because Mr. Obama had vowed to
work with an elected government and in part because the United States
did not want to risk a highly valued security relationship that
preserves the peace with Israel, keeps the Suez Canal accessible and
ensures counterterrorism cooperation.
But such security cooperation by itself is not enough to guarantee
security in Egypt or the region. Mr. Obama must not make the same
mistake with the generals, whose repression and intolerance will only
bring more instability while destroying the goals of democracy and
freedom, jobs and education that inspired the revolution in 2011.
Published: October 11, 2013
Taken from : http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/12/opinion/a-warning-to-egypts-generals.html?adxnnl=1&src=recg&adxnnlx=1382098384-fkVTySaFyOGVb5zXqmFt2Q
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