The notion of aid is a notoriously slippery one. The US pledged $45 million of it to the Syrian rebels and annually gives a large amount of it to Israel. Days ago however, news emerged that a $450 million aid package for Egypt was blocked by a US house committee chairwoman on the basis that she was ?not convinced of the urgent need for this assistance?. Now, many will be aware that under he who shall not be named, Egypt?s military received a good amount of this charitable US aid. According to leaks from various Swedish sources, the majority of last year?s package was blown in Ikea on the same day it was received by an undisclosed government official. The aid-for-furniture program aside, what is most disconcerting about the debate over US aid to Egypt is this question of whether or not the likes of Egypt deserve ?it. An opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal this week made the case against. ?The argument can be summed up by the following train of thought: Hey, why wasn?t there adequate protection for US diplomats and the embassy? Morsi hasn?t condemned?he hasn?t condemned the protests yet. He must therefore have personally ordered the police to stand down (logic?) Why? Ummm ? Islamist! that?s it, he?s an Islamist ? so ? he doesn?t want to appear ?pro-American?. God forbid the day an American president does everything possible to appease a baying mob demanding they prove they are something which in reality they aren?t, like a Muslim. As Blake Hounshell, in a piece for CNN this week pointed out, Morsi is a 9/11 truther and believes neither a Christian nor a woman should be Egypt?s leader. And yet despite this alongside his questionable judgement regarding the protests earlier this month, the Obama administration has displayed a clear intent to push through the aid package as soon as possible. It?s almost as if the US might benefit from this relationship too. I know, absurd. This is not the first time this question of Egypt?s aid worthiness has been raised. (US-Egypt relations do indeed extend past the previous two weeks.) The SCAF-led transitional regime?s crackdown on ?foreign funded? NGOs deliberately targeted American organizations such as Freedom House, arresting and placing on trial Americans as well as Egyptians. This farce was for all intents and purposes a powerful gesture toward the US administration reminding it of Egypt?s standing in the relationship. The trial prompted a desperate attempt by the US to secure the release of their citizens and demands in the aftermath, by many in Congress, to impose conditions on the impending $1.5 billion aid package to Egypt as a punishment. What was the US reaction? Hillary Clinton used a national security waiver to bypass Congress and allow the aid package to pass through unhindered. Why then are so many determined to pose the question ?does Egypt deserve US aid?? as opposed to the more obvious question of why the US seems almost compelled to provide it, as if they might have some kind of interest in doing so. Far too many US politicians and commentators still valiantly refuse to recognize the possibility that their government might not single handedly decide the terms of their international relations. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and others can throw stones with little consequence at President Obama over the issue of Egypt during an election campaign where sobering realities about America?s international standing have no real place. It is of course seemingly rational and entirely logical to feel that providing billions of dollars of aid to a country would allow you to set conditions upon that aid. But of course that pre-supposes the false assumption that said states are inherently rational actors, occasionally perhaps. Such arguments about states acting rationally are better left to political theorists or at least warrant an entire article dedicated to the question. Thus the only thing left to do is to literally draw a red line under this matter for reasons best known to absolutely no one.
Nour Bakr is a British-Egyptian freelance writer on Middle East politics and currently serves as an Associate Editor with the digital newspaper Your Middle East. You can follow him on Twitter @nour_bakr
