[Peace-discuss] Dave Edward's remarks

[Brussel Morton K.]

http://www.zcommunications.org/captive-nation-egypt-and-the-west-by-david-edwards

…In an article for Huffington Post, Hartung added more detail:
 
‘Aside from some leftover Soviet equipment from the pre-Camp David era (before 1979), the Egyptian military is virtually made in the USA. Fighter planes (Lockheed Martin F-16s), tanks (General Dynamics's M-1A1s), missiles (Harpoon, TOW, Hellfire, and Stinger, made by Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin), howitzers (United Defense), aircraft engines (General Electric) have all been purchased for the Egyptian armed forces with U.S. taxpayer dollars. The biggest winners have been Lockheed Martin ($3.8 billion); General Dynamics ($2.5 billion); Boeing ($1.7 billion); Raytheon ($750 million); and GE ($750 million).’
 
According to Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Britain sold £16.4m worth of arms to Egypt in 2009 - 81 export licences were approved for a wide range of weapons systems components.
 
Alas, the US is not eager to cut its supply of weapons to Mubarak. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, said the US should wait before suspending aid:
 
‘There is a lot of uncertainty out there and I would just caution against doing anything until we really understand what's going on. I recognise that [$1.3bn] certainly is a significant investment, but it's an investment that has paid off for a long, long time.’
 
Paid off for whom? Leading Arab scholar-activist Gilbert Achcar explains: ‘the truth is that the army as an institution is not “neutral” at all. If it has not been used yet to repress the movement, it is only because Mubarak and the general staff did not see it appropriate to resort to such a move, probably because they fear that the soldiers would be reluctant to carry out a repression’.
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