Memo to Obama - Just stand back on Egypt

ATTN: Pres. Obama

TOPIC: Keep your nose out of Egypt for the present

 

SUMMARY: Egyptian security forces are engaged in weakening Islamist strongholds after police were killed by Morsi supporters.  This does not concern U.S. interests.  This is not violent suppression of innocent protesters.  Let the situation play out and do not condemn the action. Stand back, and let this internal matter be handled internally.  Just like you did on Syria for a year, and unlike you did initially in Egypt.

 

NOTE:  The crucial detail is buried well into the story and is still positioned as an anti-government news item.  Do not fall victim to this ploy president Obama.

DETAILS: (emphasis added)

KERDASA, Egypt (AP) - Egyptian security forces backed by armored fighting vehicles and helicopters stormed a town known to be an Islamist stronghold outside of Cairo near the Great Pyramids on Thursday, coming under barrages of fire from gunmen on rooftops as they searched door to door for militants.

A police general fell in the first moments of the battle at around 6 a.m. Gen. Nabil Farrag had just given a pep talk to his men on the street, preparing them to roll into the town of Kerdasa, when they came under a hail of gunfire, according to an Associated Press photographer and video journalists at the scene.

Army soldiers and policemen ducked for cover behind armored vehicles and behind walls. Farrag fell with a bullet wound in his right side, getting past the body armor he was wearing. He lay in the street for nearly 15 minutes, blood soaking through his white uniform, until his men could reach him and carry him into a sedan to take to a hospital.

The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of the police, later announced Farrag's death.

The assault on Kerdasa underlined a stepped-up resolve by the military-backed government to suppress strongholds of supporters of Egypt's ousted Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. Earlier this week, a large army-police force stormed Dalga, a town in southern Egypt, to break the hold of Islamic militants who took control there after the military toppled Morsi on July 3.

Kerdasa carries more strategic importance than Dalga since it is a short drive away from Cairo's center and is near the Pyramids of Giza, Egypt's primary tourist attraction.

The town witnessed a brutal assault on security forces last month when heavily armed Morsi supporters killed 15 police officers and mutilated their bodies. The attack was part of a wave of retaliatory violence around the country after security forces cracked down on the main pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo with heavy assaults that killed hundreds.

NYT overlooks the sinister possibilities re: Egypt

 

The New York Times has an article today about the considerable leverage that the US Government has with the Egyptian military and how the Obama administration is reviewing that leverage.  But what the NYT overlooks, is that it is very possible that the leverage has already been applied and that the Egyptian military is already listening to Washington. Nevertheless, the Times does present some interesting facts.

In fact, Egypt is so enamored of Apache attack helicopters, M1A1 battle tanks and F-16 fighter jets that exasperated American military officials have been telling generals there for years that they need to expand beyond the hardware of bygone wars and spend more American money on border security, as well as counterterrorism and surveillance equipment and training that a truly modern military needs.

Either way, a close look at the details of American military aid to Egypt shows why the relatively modest $1.3 billion may give the United States more leverage over the Egyptian military than it may seem, although still not as much as it wants.

Even if Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf monarchies make up for any aid the United States may suspend, Washington would block Egypt from buying American weaponry with that money — a serious long-term problem for a military that is already viewed as sclerotic and has neglected pilot training so badly that the Egyptian air force has one of the worst crash rates of any F-16 fleet in the world.

What Egypt’s generals fear most is the cutoff of hundreds of millions of dollars in mundane but essential maintenance contracts that keep the tanks, fighter jets and helicopters running, American officials and lawmakers said. In the past, maintenance costs have represented roughly 15 percent of total American military aid to Egypt, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Obama foreign policy gaffes are well known...in Egypt

Remember what I said about Egyptians helping out Obama and Clinton (inadvertently), making their failed Middle East "policy" look better with this second revolution against Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood?  That would not be the case if people in America were to see the real news out of Egypt.  Doug Ross @ Journal has a great compilation of pictures you won't see in the mainstream media that certainly should be the final nail in the coffin of Obama foreign policy.

Here's a sample but there are many more compiled by Doug Ross.

Egyptian Spring 2.0

It looks as if the drift towards an Islamic Brotherhood run state in Egypt has been stalled by Egyptian citizens with a nod to the military.  The Egyptians may have saved the White House from yet another embarrassment in it's call for Mubarak to step down during the previous iteration of the Arab Spring in Egypt.  Despite the bungling of the whole Middle East situation by both Obama and Clinton (et. al.), Egypt may yet come out of this a democracy and less hostile to the West than peviously.

Then again, it could turn ugly.