Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Egypt: Things are getting too interesting

The Egyptian military appears to be on a collision course with the U.S. government. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dempsey is heading to Cairo to talk to the generals. What makes it especially interesting is that Egypt appears to be calculating that President Obama and Congress won’t cut off the $1.5 billion (that’s a B) in ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
John Moore/Getty Images
John Moore/Getty Images
John Moore/Getty Images

The Egyptian military appears to be on a collision course with the U.S. government. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dempsey is heading to Cairo to talk to the generals.

The Egyptian military appears to be on a collision course with the U.S. government. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dempsey is heading to Cairo to talk to the generals.

What makes it especially interesting is that Egypt appears to be calculating that President Obama and Congress won’t cut off the $1.5 billion (that’s a B) in aid that the U.S. provides annually. Given the mood of Congress, and Obama’s visceral disdain for Third World tinpot generals, I think that is a bad bet.

It is interesting that two of our largest aid recipients (Egypt and Pakistan) appear increasingly to be acting as adversaries.

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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