Aid cutoff to Egypt would do nothing

DeWayne Wickham, USATODAY4:22 p.m. EDT August 19, 2013

The money the U.S. gives Egypt pales in comparison with the billions from Gulf monarchies.

 It doesn't surprise me that Egypt's military decided to use force to end its six-week standoff with supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood government threatened to turn the North African nation into an Islamic state.

What does surprise me is that politicians at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue actually seem to think that on this matter Washington has more influence with the generals in Cairo than do the monarchies in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Nothing points out the wrongheadedness of this thinking more than the debate among politicians in the nation's capital over whether President Obama should end the foreign assistance the U.S. gives Egypt.

The call for a cutoff of U.S. aid to Egypt comes a month after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates announced aid packages for Egypt's military government totaling $12 billion — eight times more than $1.5 billion Egypt will lose if U.S. pulls the plug on its financial support to the Middle East's most populous country.

Even so, the call for a cutoff of U.S. aid — with Republicans and Democrats lining up on both sides of this issue — intensified after the military's recent move against Morsi supporters that has taken the lives of more than 800 people. As tragic as this violence is, an end of U.S. aid won't force Egyptian soldiers back into their barracks, or return Morsi to that country's presidency.

As a statement of one of America's most important values — our advocacy for democratic rule — turning off the foreign aid spigot for Egypt makes sense. As a reflection of American interests, it doesn't. America's survival and that of Israel, this nation's principal ally in the Middle East, are threatened by religious fanaticism, not Egypt's military government.

It is the democratically elected, mullah-run government in Iran that is helping to prop up Syria's dictatorship and increase the chances of a nuclear confrontation in the region. And it is the Hamas-led, democratically elected government in the Gaza Strip that recently passed a law criminalizing the efforts of any educational institution to establish an exchange program with Israel or to work to normalize relations with the Jewish state.

Monarchies in the oil-rich nations of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates are the region's bulwark against the spread of the Islamist rule.

To agitate for a return of Morsi's government — or a cutoff of U.S. aid to Egypt — is blind allegiance to democracy that has, at least in this case, been corrupted. It's something akin to defending the right to bear arms for someone who is determined to shoot you. It's like championing free speech for those who radicalized suspectedBoston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; or Richard Reid, the guy who tried to bring down an American passenger jet with a shoe bomb.

In the abstract, spreading democracy throughout the world is a virtuous idea. But in the real world, this commendable value should not be pursued in total disregard of overriding, and legitimate, national interests.

"The UAE stands by Egypt and its people at this stage and trusts the choices of its people. Egypt's security and stability are the basis of Arab security," the United Arab Emirates' national security adviser said last month of his country's portion of the $12 billion Egyptian aid package.

Given their druthers, I'm sure those monarchies would prefer a return of dynastic rule in Egypt, whose last king was ousted in a 1953 military coup. Short of that, they see the country's military leaders as the lesser of two evils.

The Obama administration and Congress should do the same.

DeWayne Wickham writes on Tuesdays for USA TODAY.

"In the case of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the other Gulf States, the quid pro quo was, for a long time, about access to cheap oil and energy. More recently, it has involved coöperation with the United States and its allies in campaigns against Al Qaeda and its offshoots. In the case of Egypt, since 1979, the basis of its cordial relationship with the United States has been its willingness to stand by the peace treaty with Israel, signed by Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. Since the nineteen-nineties, the Egyptian government has also coöperated closely with the C.I.A. and other U.S. agencies in the undercover fight against Islamic radicalism, playing a key role in the rendition and interrogation of suspected terrorists captured by American forces."

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