What do you think of Obama giving Egypt jets and tanks?

You mean that country that has received military aid from every US administration (taxpayers) since 1946, for a total of $57 billion dollars?

Just wanted to add the $$ for context.

Clearly, he is buying the Islamist’s cooperation regarding Israel and Palestine. Probably there have been threats to open the border to Palestine if the US is not more forthcoming with weaponry.

I wonder if the US puts back doors into the F-!6 computers so that we can take them over if they are ever used against us? I wonder if the people who buy them spend a lot of time looking for those back doors? I would never sell weapons like that to a country whose allegiance might turn so easily. Then again, if they did discover a back door, there would be all hell to pay.

I think it’s about as sensible a move as giving an unarmed psychopath a samurai sword.

It’s all in the name of spreading Democracy. Bush would approve.

(Hopefully, the integral self-destruct circuitry is still operational.)

Well, I guess it might buy a little goodwill but they don’t have any stability. It’s like giving them to a child. Who knows what’s going to happen.

As @tom_g said, the one that is a continuation of long standing US policy? You mean the one that had bipartisan support in the Senate?

I think we can always trust our President to make smart decisions on our behalf.

As broke as we are, I can’t believe we’re ‘giving’ anything to anyone. sigh Of course we are.

Funny that you are crying wolf now, that an elected islamist is in power, while being completely silent when that unelected dictator was.
Besides, you know what happened after Obama cut all aid to NK. They went completely loose.

And besides, the planes are pretty low tier. They are f16s, not Glorious Eurofighter Typhoons.

@ragingloli Only $17 million new.

^^ out of the $1.3 billion in military aid that the US provides to Egypt every year.—This doesn’t include the roughly $200 – $500 million in additional “economic aid” to Egypt.

At this point Egypt is going through yet another civil war. We don’t know if the current administration under Morsi will survive. Even Obama doesn’t know if Egypt is an ally or enemy. So while we wait to see, we’ll just send them some F16 fighter jets and see if they use them to help or hurt us.

Remember that it has only been a few weeks since the Egyptians overran our embassy and hoisted the Al Qaeda flag over it. Seems like a foriegn policy that has spun completely out of control.

I’d sooner give them a meccano set and tell them to get building their own. Hopefully they’d be too daft to realize there isn’t all that much you can do with a meccano set other than make bridges and build cars. Possibly mechanical robots if you give them the motors.
Seriously though, given the largely anti-west propaganda that exists that side of the globe, it’s really not a very good idea at all. Unless it’s to balance out the outcome of a war of neighboring countries where one is viewed in a much dimmer light than the other to the country giving such things away, there really is no point in such an exercise.

@Jaxk Is it really the US foreign policy spinning out of control or the middle east just spinning out of control as usual? Thanks.

@mazingerz88

In a perfect world, US foriegn policy would account for the Middle East spinning out of control.

”What do you think of Obama giving Egypt jets and tanks?” – I think it’s smart to arm a potential enemy (after all, who knows what’s in store for that part of the world in the next few years) with equipment that is designed to be unable to target your own tanks and planes (frankly I’m surprised anyone still buys tech from you yanks).

@fremen_warrior If Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is anything to go by I’d say the same damn thing.

Risky.