Suspending Egypt’s Military Aid: Too Little, Too Late

Three months since the military coup in Egypt, U.S. military aid to the country is being reconsidered. It appears that the administration will

withhold the delivery of several big-ticket items, including Apache attack helicopters, Harpoon missiles, M1-A1 tank parts and F-16 warplanes, as well as $260 million for the general Egyptian budget.

The details of the freeze have not been disclosed. But after its refusal to call the events in Egypt a coup and a half-hearted cancellation of joint military exercises scheduled for September, this is certainly a step in the right direction. Unfortunately, it is too small and too equivocal as the administration is stressing that it wants to keep a door open to restore the aid in its entirety. More importantly, the announcement comes too late to make a meaningful difference to Egyptians.

Why all the reluctance? For years, Americans were told that aid to Egypt was a mechanism that gave the U.S. government leverage over developments in the most populous Arab country. The only sense in which that has worked is that aid has helped to deeply entrench authoritarian rule in the country. Egypt’s military has slowly built an opaque economic empire and a network of patronage with very little accountability. And even if one believes that a strong military and an autocratic secular state is what it takes to save Egypt from becoming a theocracy, there is nothing for Americans to gain from being complicit in the process and in everything that might possibly go wrong.

Indeed, many things have already gone wrong. The bloody aftermath of the coup might be just a foretaste of more violence looming on the horizon. Following the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt has seen a rise in Islamic radicalization, especially in the Sinai. In the meantime, the secular government has shown itself no more capable of tackling the country’s numerous economic challenges than the thoroughly inept cabinet of Hisham Qandil. And as American money keeps flowing in, ordinary Egyptians will keep blaming the United States for the rebirth of the militarized authoritarian state in their country and for its ugly repercussions.