U.S. military aid to Egypt

It’s $1.3 billion per year, and it may be cut off due to the recent criminal charges against a number of American NGO workers on absurdly paranoid charges of having supposedly paid the Tahrir protestors to protest.

During last year’s Revolution, one well-informed author framed the U.S. military aid as of limited significance to the Egyptian military. But I just calculated it. The Egyptian military budget is $5.85 billion annually.

In short, the U.S. aid accounts for 22% of the Egyptian military budget. That looks pretty considerable to me. Imagine what it would do to your own life to take a 22% salary hit. Or more to the point, imagine a country’s economy shrinking by 22%.

I’m in favor of cutting off the aid, not just to protect the charged Americans from unjust prosecution, but also to protect the Egyptian populace from their top generals.