The United States is trading a long-standing, mutually beneficial security relationship for relations that will be less solid (is anything less solid than the US-Egypt relationship AFTER we’ve spend $1.5 billion on it annually since the early 1980s and welcomed its Muslim Brotherhood revolution?); less technologically advantageous to the U.S. (the technology relationship with the Arab/Muslim world flows only one way); and less protective of minority and civil rights (as the Egyptians discover we have no leverage).
General Dempsey is the fall guy for an administration that increasingly holds Israel in contempt before Arab and Muslim countries — which increasingly hold us in contempt.
Visit the Gatestone Institute.
Footnotes:
[1] When Major Non-NATO Ally status meant something; now it’s been applied to Afghanistan – laughably suggesting that the Afghan military has something to contribute to the security of NATO.
[2] Actually negotiated by the Bush administration in a 10-year deal.
[3] Negotiated during the Bush administration by now-Senator Mark Kirk.
[4] A tricky concept when the U.S. is selling billions of dollars worth of equipment to countries at war with Israel.
[5] See “Austere Challenge” below.
