If You're Interested ...

[Regi Says Index]

If you have an interest in the goings-on at the Ayn Rand institute and the latest Peikoff follies, the most recent of which I covered in the Regi Says articles, "Scandal in Galt's Gulch," and, "The ARI Bully," you might be interested in the excellent summary of that whole affair by Mark Hunter, in his article, "The Ayn Rand Institute vs. John McCaskey," on his ARI Watch site.

Egypt

Everybody is writing about Egypt. Fred Reed, in his latest Cairo; even Burt Prelutsky in his, "Beware What You Ask of the Genie."

They both ask good questions, but I think they both have missed the real issue. I also think Fred's subtitle, "And the Impossibility of Intelligent Foreign Policy," is wrong. There is only one moral foreign policy, "mind your own business!"

But Fred gets very close to the real issue when he asks, "Why does Egypt have tanks in the first place?" It is the answer to that question which is the real issue. I addressed that issue in my article "The Egypt Gyp" in the table that lists the sixteen Middle East countries that are recipients of $6.278445 billion in aid every year.

So far, the clearest explication of the real issue in Egypt (which pertains to the whole Middle East as well) is Sibel Edmonds' "US Media & Egypt Coverage: Dodging the Real Issues & Fudging the Real Culprits." Why does Egypt have tanks, for the same reason Egypt has war planes.

The combined wealth of Mubarak, his wife, and his son is estimated at $62 billion, all of it gleaned from American taxpayer aid to Egypt. Sibel asks the question, "We Americans have been paying this man for 30 years, for a total of $60 Billion. Was it for infrastructure, job creation--you know, all those vital ingredients?" Obviously not, since Egypt's economy is sunk and the country as a whole is one of the poorest in the Middle East.

So exactly what is the purpose of all this aid to Egypt and the other middle east countries. We know what rulers of those countries are getting from all that aid, but what is the United States getting out of it?

Here's a clue. (Summarized.)

In May of 2009 Egypt's defense Minister met with US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to discuss "a wide range of security issue." Gates said, "he looks forward to expanding the two countries? military-to-military relationships in ways that promote regional stability." Five months after that meeting, the Pentagon announced it would sell a new batch of two dozen F-16 fighter aircraft to Egypt--a $3.2 billion deal that is among the most recent of a long string of arms deliveries from America to its North African ally. These F-16s, according to the Pentagon announcement would support "Egypt's legitimate need for its own self-defense."

So where does Egypt, a country that cannot even feed itself, get $3.2 billion to purchase American F-16s? Why they get it from American aid, of course. It is easy enough to come up with $3.2 billion when you are receiving $1.55 billion every year, even when Mubarak and company have removed their, "commissions," and, "expenses," from that aid.

So who is getting the $3.2 billion dollars? In the case of the F-16s, Lockheed Martin does. But this same story can be repeated for every manufacturer of arms "sold" to Egypt and other Middle East countries.

I really like the way Sibel describes the process:

"... our government takes our dollars, gives it to dictator allies, and then asks them to turn around, give that money (minus the personal share for personal wealth) to our military industrial complex corporations. Then, we have those CEO?s with $$$$$$$ salaries, and $$$$$$$ to the lobbyists and $$$$$$ to our elected representatives, who then in turn, sanction giving more money, aid, tax payers' dollars, to these dictators; and the cycle repeats, repeats, repeats...well, it's been repeating nonstop for more than half a century."

The real issue in Egypt and the Middle East is this very big piece of the War Profits game. It is crooked, corrupting, and evil, and made possible only by continued American Foreign aid.

—Reginald Firehammer (02/09/11)

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