Egypt and Arab States circle toilet bowl

[Griff]

Well said, Uday.

[TheMercenary]

Or notion of Democracy and that of what the rest of the world thinks it to be are completely different. This string reinforces it.

[TheMercenary]

Let's see if Obama has the balls to cut the money....

Muslim Brotherhood Warns U.S. Aid Cut May Affect Egypt’s Peace Treaty With Israel

So far, the defiant response from Cairo has been attributed mostly to government figures with links to the deposed Mubarak regime, including the anti-Western minister for international cooperation, Fayza Abul-Naga. The military-appointed Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri – who also served during the Mubarak era – told reporters last Wednesday that the authorities “won’t change course because of some aid.”

But now the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which won almost 50 percent of the seats in recent legislative elections and dominates parliamentary committees, is making its position clear, too.


Egyptians pass a police checkpoint near the Interior Ministry in Cairo on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Any U.S. aid cut to Egypt, top MB lawmaker Essam el-Erian told the pan-Arabic al-Hayat newspaper, would violate the U.S.-brokered 1979 peace agreement with Israel.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/musl...-treaty-israel

[TheMercenary]

Although never particularly popular in Egypt, the agreement kept the peace between the former foes for three decades and secured Egypt more than $1.3 billion in U.S. military and economic aid each year.

Save this and we could buy everybody birth control pills.

[glatt]

$1.3 billion is nothing compared to the costs of another middle east war. If we can keep buying peace for that small amount, I support it. I only wish we could have bought peace in Afghanistan and Iraq for a similar amount.

[TheMercenary]

I don't know, sounds a little too blackmailish for me. If nothing else we need to significantly reduce this kind of aid across the board.

[glatt]

Yes, it's ethically and morally questionable, but my portion of that amount works out to about the same cost as a cup of Starbucks coffee per year. I'm happy to pay that to avoid war. I'd up it to 3 coffees per year if I could have avoided war in Iraq and Afghanistan too. It's nothing.

[TheMercenary]

Yea, but if some people get their way you will be buying 10 coffees a year and you would be hooked and addicted to getting financial aid for everything in your life, it's a slippery slope.

[TheMercenary]

Russia and Iran are continuing to send arms to the Syrian regime that can be used against protesters, a top State Department official said today.

"Iran is resupplying Syria and through Syria has supplied weapons to Hezbollah," said Tom Countryman, the assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation, at a Wednesday morning breakfast meeting of the Defense Writers Group in Washington.

Countryman's bureau plays a major role in monitoring international compliance with nonproliferation and arms control rules. He declined to go into specifics on what arms Iran and Russia are giving the regime of Bashar al-Assad, but he confirmed that both countries are still supplying arms that can be used to attack civilians and opposition groups inside Syria, who are engaged in an increasingly bloody struggle with the government.

"We do not believe that Russian shipments of weapons to Syria are in the interests of Russia or Syria," he said.

According to Countryman, the Iranian weapons being funneled through the Syrian government to Hezbollah are not being used by Hezbollah inside Syria, but are being transferred to Hezbollah groups inside Syria's neighbor Lebanon.

Countryman also said the U.S. government is working with allies to try to get a handle on the stores of conventional, biological, and chemical weapons inside Syria, to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands if and when the Assad regime collapses.

There are "tens of thousands" of MANPADS - shoulder-fired missile systems -- in Syria and nobody really knows where they all are, Countryman said. Unlike Libya, Syria is not a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, so there is no official reporting on its store of those weapons, but the effort to locate them is underway.

"We have ideas as to the quantity and we have ideas as to where they are," Countryman said. "We wish some of the neighbors of Syria to be on the lookout... When you get a change of regime in Syria, it matters what are the conditions -- chaotic or orderly."

Russia is not our friend Obama....

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/po...ashar_al_assad

[Happy Monkey]

Obama's not the one who looked in Putin's soul and liked what he saw.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Obama's not the one who looked in Putin's soul and liked what he saw.

Maybe, but I bet Obama gave him a blow job.

[classicman]

@ HM - Bwahahahahaa...

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

Maybe, but I bet Obama gave him a blow job.

A new low... Merc's parents must be so proud.

[Ibby]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

A new low... Merc's parents must be so proud.

Not a new low, but I get yelled at every time I bring up Merc's REAL low points at the Cellar.

[Sundae]

That's because when you rake up the past you get the stench of decay.
Merc's made some gaffes, but it's not necessary to air them if you disagree with a current post. That should be enough.

I live with a woman who is happy to bring up things that happened over 20 years ago. It doesn't make for a sense of community.