American armor on the streets of Egypt

WM, I think we (the US) gives around 1.2 Billion a year to Egypt in Military aid ( Tank's, APC's, Night vision , ect) If Egypt does fall into the hands of Muslim radicals, they will be controlling the Suez canal with those weapons.
We (US) have given 100's of Millions to Lebanon over the years and just put a hold on $100 million in appropriations to the Lebanese Army in August of 2011. These are weapons that will eventualy be turned over to Hezbollah when the Lebanese falls to Hezbollah.
I wont get into how much we have given to Pakistan, Jordan or Yemen that will blow your mind. I understand that our Government wants to play nice as far as tit for tat games for intel and allowing us to put air base's in those countries, but at some point our soldiers will be facing them weapons, like it or not it's gonna happen.

We need to stop giving money to other countries and help our own people out first for once.
I didnt work my butt off, get shot up, almost killed many times over to protect other countires. I did that for America and I believe that my blood and sweat should go towards other Americans. No one else.
Maybe if we get our government to help our own people first we can fix all the problems.
Ok im dreaming here.

Well...the friggin govment stopped sending me memos about 20 years ago...so I have to watch CNN and read stuff in other sources

Fellers...and ladies...I'm just glad I don't have to be the one working the puppet strings cause I would prolly cop an attitude and start smashing stuff

I think it boils down to who we can trust....this week and what do they have we need
Seems like lately...we come up short ...across the board, and in every action we engage in.
We support/defend oil rich nations...but we pay a premium for their oil...but we have more than they do...but we let them limit what we can buy...and set the price depending on what our "not so friendly" countries want to pay??...but we arm them...with pretty good stuff.

I'm prolly as stupid as I look...but...my idea is...we give...you give an equal amount.
You want protection/support...you give up some assets.

Heck...let the Mafia show us how!!!

I wasn't able to save the picture (embedded or some such thing) but the Drudge Report had a shot of a couple of people sitting on top of a M88 with the pyramids in the background. If nothing else, it was an interesting photo.

mkcoen said:

I wasn't able to save the picture (embedded or some such thing) but the Drudge Report had a shot of a couple of people sitting on top of a M88 with the pyramids in the background. If nothing else, it was an interesting photo.

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You mean this one?

Nonotagain said:

You mean this one?

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That's the one. Guess I'm not tech savvy enough. The picture wasn't in the story and it wouldn't let me capture it off the headline page.

Nice tow bar though.

January 31st, 2011.

It does seem that the devils we do know have been getting fiesty lately.... BUT they can't even leave their own history undamaged, and in many ways the society there is split between the 7th and the 20th centuries. Our equipment may be getting sold to Egypt, but we have been doing "Export" versions for decades (anyone remember the DC-2's sold to Japan?) which theoretically spreads the development costs among more buyers and reduces our up front costs... Still, I'rd rather take out a T-72 or T-80 then some variant of an M1...

Oh, Well, Bagdadh or Cairo, it all looks the same to me...

Check this out. FreedomTorch - EGYPT IN FLAMES

PPAPA BEAR has the right idea, you want it, we have it, a barrel of grain for a barrel of oil, but arming and defending people who really don't want to be free (except in THEIR definition of it) which is I'll tell you, you do it MY way. That isn't cool. Its trouble in the making. Its been that way since the end of WWII big time. And in most of the S--T Hole countries, alot of what we send them goes black market anyway. The rest, they don't know how to care for so when it breaks, it sits and rots. Those of you who've "been there and done that" know what I'm saying. Seeing junkyard full of our stuff laying there because they can't keep it running. I've seen dozens of patrolboats and other ships we've turned over to them rotting on the beach because they can't or will not learn to drydock and repair them. Spoiled kids with toys, the US will give us more..... We need to take care of things at home first. Things like restoring the republic, peoples dignity and jobs. Make MADE IN AMERICA possible again.

I'm sure glad we don't get into politics on this site....

So from what i have seen it looks like the poeple of egypt have had all they can take of there dictator Mudbar and they want a change. Who in there right mind turns off the internet.



I agree it don't like the amount of "made in the USA" material and equipment be used against the protestors.

0.3% of the population protests and they get to decide on a new government.

Ever hear of the 3% ers in the colonies. Imagine of who acutally stands up for their county. That means 97% did nothing at all.

If it works out for them - I am with them
If it works out bad for them how stupid was it for trying to free themself.
There is your 97% way of thinking

Some (3%) actually got involved.

Some know how to sit on the fence really well.

Its not politics - it is what effects us all. Unless you have an oil producing well in your backyard and your own refinery - or Gull Island or Produe bay in your back yard.

That wasn't 3% it was 10% of that at 0.3% therefore 99.7% aren't yet protesting.

B3.3T said:

I'm sure glad we don't get into politics on this site....

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Sigh...... sw

This picture says it all. I am sickened!!!!I know this is like a dagger in the heart to my son who was a Black Horse tanker in Iraq...I guess tomorrow we will see an Egyptian stealth fighter.

Much of the International sales in military gear is financed through the U.S., where Egypt in turn takes the money on loan and buys our arms though Foreign Military Sales, part of our International Security Assistance Programs. This is worked at the ,highest level initially, via our State Department. Egypt pays the U.S. for these equipment items through a LOA, which is our version of a formal contract, and our govt. people work feverishly wiith American contractors to get the equipment items tested and shipped iaw with State Department approved authority. We don't sell them anything not preapproved.

Egypt gets approx. $1.3B per year in funding. They spend it and it ends up in our contractors hands where even in the worst of economies, jobs are provided for the production and testing of our Military goods.

We never sell the best of our equipment. Even though it may look like the best on the outside, it is not our top technologies.

Israel gets much more than any other Country. We support several countries in the MIddle East with arms. It is one of our strongest exports.

Much of the debt is forgiven from time to time, due to favors given with such efforts like the Iraq or Afghanistan conflict where we get logistical or area support. We cannot keep our aircraft in the air. They have to land somewhere, as do our ships for repairs.

About $7B in debt was forgiven with Egypt in 1990 for support in the initial Iraq conflict for instance. The war support goes well beyond the actual borders of the conflict.

It is darn if you do, darn if you don't with the State Departmient negotiations in trying to maintain Peace in the Middle East. There is no easy way to make it happen, and it will continue to cost us throughout our kids lifetimes.

It could be much worse, and would be, in spite of ongoing current events, without our intervention, which will always cost.

Question: What do you think we would charge foreign nations in advance to bomb our soil and their enemies? And what do you think we would charge them to land their aircraft and ships here for repairs and refueling should they want to attack an enemy from our soil?

It's complicated, and we're not going to solve anything here. That's why we don't talk politics on this forum. We CAN fix a diesel problem.

We CAN COVET their MV's!

atankersdad said:

This picture says it all. I am sickened!!!!I know this is like a dagger in the heart to my son who was a Black Horse tanker in Iraq...I guess tomorrow we will see an Egyptian stealth fighter.

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Unless the Russians or Chicoms gave them stealth aircraft, they don't have any US produced stealth birds.

As previously mentioned, their training leaves a lot to be desired. I doubt that they don't have a single pilot with more than 250 hours flight time. In contrast the average US pilot in theater flying fighter aircraft averages 60 hours per month.

They have F-16 C/D models as well as a couple of variants of the F-18, though not sure which models unless I do an engine look-up.

A few key strokes and the F-18's won't be flying. The magic of FADAC controls.

I seem to remember another country that stood up against a dictator who was abusing them. It worked out okay for them if i remember correctly. Lets wait and see how this works out. It really depends on what fork in the road they take. If they take the democratic path and have free and fair elections and rule of law then Egypt will be a stabilizing force in the middle east for generations. If they allow themselves and the revolution to morph into a theocracy under Sharia law then we will have problems for generations. While history isnt on the side of this turning out well for us Egypt is a moderate country with a strong prowestern middle class and educated population.

But so was Iran pre revolution, Afganistan pre-Taliban, Lebanon pre-Hezbollah, Iraq pre-Saddam, and just about every change of government in that region in the last few decades has turned out bad. But who knows maybe this will work out okay