What is the benefit of arming them?
It’s not just aid it’s influence. You don’t hand someone weapons unless you want a say in where they’re pointed
It helps to have a few common enemies.
It's literally just bribes to keep them from screwing with Israel or the Suez Canal.
That's it.
Check out the Camp David Accords. We paid them to end their war with Israel.
Seems like at least one regime knew when to stop
to bad it doesn't work with everyone the US gives money to in the middle east.
Too* bad we give some of them bombs instead of aid because they cant behave
Israel never fought Egypt again
Well we paid Israel too.
It’s pretty cheap for what we’re getting in Return
Yeah. Very strong political influence in one of the most important Arab states, direct influence over the Suez canal, and the benefit of stability instead of a risk of nukes burning millions of people to a crisp. Pretty cheap for 1 billion
You are getting Israel in return. That is all. Wasn’t it supposed to be fixed at 60% of whatever Israel gets? I guess they stopped that.
Israel and shipping securities are a lot for 1b
It’s costing a lot more than that. Billions more, endless wars and millions of lives.
US supports a lot of the Middle Eastern regimes to ensure they're relatively stable, relatively peaceful and West oriented.
They also give money to Jordan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq.
How does giving military aid make Egypt more stable?
Edit: who downvoted a simple question in r/nostupidquestions???
It’s run by the military…
The background to Egypt aid is it also the price for alignment with the US. Through the 1960s-mid 1970s Egypt aligned with the Soviets and attacked Israel twice. After the 1973 war Egypt had exhausted itself militarily and economically. Through the remainder of the decade the US cajoled it into the eventual peace deal with Israel, and alignment with Washington rather than Moscow for arms supply etc. Aid is a legacy of that; Egypt collecting some payment.
Thanks this makes a lot of sense!
Please note that Egypt was already winding down Soviet support before the 1973 war itself, such as kicking out large numbers of advisors. But you are right of course, this military aid massively accelerated the pace at which it aligned with the US
If they are supplied by us, they are less likely to attack us/our allies, this also in turn ensures they are not funding our enemies by buying from them, this also ensures we have a good idea of what they have/what their capabilities are. They fights they do get into with our enemies, gives us constant real time feedback on their capabilities, and how well our equipment fares.
Important to note 'aid' is usually just the ability to buy our products. We are giving them a discount on American made goods, not just giving them stuff at our expense.
The economies of scale mean one of our arm suppliers makes 1000 tanks, they now need to make 10000 tanks, meaning our cost per unit goes down, while American workers have jobs, and are paying American taxes.
We are giving them X amount of dollars to generate Y amount of economic activity, while also received Z amount of intelligence. All told, this saves us time, money, and helps our economy usually more than it costs us in actual dollars.
This right here is what so many people miss. Most of the time, military aid is not in the form of giving weapons. It is the form of selling US made weapons. Granted, those weapons are often bought with money the US gave them in the form of aid. What it is realistically doing is moving US public funds (tax dollars) into private industry without directly funding those industries.
Also a whole Suez Canal that had set record revenues s before Huthi attacks
Unstable regimes are usually unstable because the government does stupid shit. The Egyptian government needs to behave to keep getting aid from the US and tourists from the EU, so they're way less motivated to fuck it all up.
Because they make nice with Israel.
Take my updoot
Lol peaceful…
"relatively" did a lot of heavy lifting there
Peaceful to other countries. Their citizens' well-being isn't part of the equation.
Peaceful to other countries that we consider our allies. If Egypt were to pick a fight with Sudan, there would be no problem at all.
Everything is relative.
Well there is one country in the Middle East that gets the most money and drops the most bombs. So clearly it hasn’t worked with Israel. But the rest seem to want peace.
It's complicated. Part of it is about maintaining stability in the region and ensuring the Suez Canal stays open. Does that make sense, or is there something else you're wondering?
I'm interested in knowing why making Egypt a military superpower brings stability?
Edit: They asked if there was something else I was wondering, I asked, and got downvoted to hell. What am I missing?
Before I begin, no such thing as free money. You’re not giving it for no reason
BUT A military superpower? HAAA, Egypt??!! Lmfaoooo
You really think Egypt of all countries is a superpower in the making? Do you know who their president/dictator is? Bro if you could understand Arabic, you’d know what I’m saying. I could probably find clips with the shit he says on TV. Straight comedy.
But for starters, they’re a strategic ally, the US benefits with maintaining access to the Suez Canal, they assist the US in counter terrorism, regional security, provide intelligence to the US, and it helps maintain the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of ‘79 (the one WE helped settle)
Secondly, Egypt also purchases US military equipment, for example Egypt produces M1A1 Abram’s tanks. Now they’re not modernized, they’re typically stripped of any advanced equipment like thermals, advanced fire control, the extra armor the US M1 Abrams get. But the US is a significant arms provider to Egypt.
You’re not “giving” money…. You’re obviously getting benefits and perks in return, money isn’t exactly free.
The whole idea that the US is just “giving” money is ridiculous considering the amount of power and influence the US holds over the world….. which it’s now handing over to china. like really I don’t think you realize. You know how many US military bases are around the world right?
The world of international affairs is a delicate one, and currently the US is conducting self-sabotage by engaging in this rhetoric.
I highly advise you learn about your own country first, before you start pointing fingers at those at the mercy of the US government. (For now at least)
This answer has a strange tone. What country are you assuming is mine, that I should learn about?
As for the superpower bit, I assumed that being in the global top 10 would qualify for that title?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Army
If your source measures Egypt's military strenght by military personnel (which isn't a reliable indicator btw) then it's at best two times less according to Wikipedia. If measured by their budget, Egypt barely makes it to top 50 according to GFP:
https://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.php
Just a reminder to always double-check your sources, especially if they're obscure.
That is a very good point, back during the first Gulf War, Iraq had I believe the 4th largest military in terms of manpower.
They were defeated in just over a month.
If you compare losses Iraq had over 13x more causalities.
Thanks this is very helpful. How would you actually rate their military, comparatively?
I'm not an military expert by a long shot, but considering that they rank below relatively small Finland in GFP and spend less than Morocco or Algeria, I'd venture a guess that they wouldn't fare very well against some other regional powers, let alone proper medium-sized Western militaries.
This is just a guess based on numbers though, to venture a proper estimate, you'd have to take into account their equipment, leadership, levels of corruption, whether they're attacking or defending, is the war symmetrical or asymmetrical, geography of the contested area etc.
Then again I have no real military experience so I might be spewing complete bs.
There’s a caveat with the budget of military while it may seem small on paper it doesn’t take into account that most of the funding of the military is actually coming from their control over the economy through military owned businesses
Are you talking about domestic military industry or civilian businesses owned by the military? Because I've never heard of the former but it seems a perfect recipe for corruption.
Both and yes it leads to a lot of corruption within the country although this isn’t a recent phenomenon
Post 1973 sadat allowed the army to form some military buisness mostly involved in construction and oil to compensate for the militaries low budget a policy that continued under mubrak as well although he encouraged the private sector to participate mire and more into the economy but with a lot of corruption included and since 2013 when el sisi took over he expanded the military’s role in the economy significantly most government contracts are handed out to the army, the army doesn’t disclose it’s financial statements and is basically handed out lands and mega projects and basically monopolies within the country
My dad was stationed in the Middle East during the 80s and he always said Egypt was like the key to everything you lose Egypt you lose the whole region.
Did he say why?
Suez Canal. 30% of ALL global container traffic moves through the Suez Canal. It’s like 15% of all the trade in the world
This is just the continuation of the US vs USSR model. They paid countries whose alliance is for sale so they act in their national security and economic interests when needed.
Because they were the first Arab country to make peace with Israel.
Its about the Suez.....and the EU.
All the trade that goes through the suez is for the EU.
A big reason why the EU doesn't have much room to talk when it comes to NATO spending, military stuff because its our carrier fleets and foreign aid that protect their trade.
people who do what we say and buy a lot of weapons and military equipment from us get aid.
To control the suez canal.
It's effectively a bribe to stop the Egyptians from attacking Israel. Which dates back to the 1970s.
I would recommend reading Losing the Long Game by Phillip H. Gordon - he worked in the national security council as special assistant to Obama for the Middle East, North Africa and the Gulf during and post the Arab spring and so the regime change in Egypt is one of the matters discussed in quite a decent amount of detail. In short - propping up a strategic ally who they don’t want to pop up causing loads of issues including for the Suez
Keeping them muzled against israel and also stability in the region. Imagine if they blocked the suez. Europe would be screwed.
cus they can't afford for Egypt to fail. It's one of the only "stable" regional allies. Egypt knows this and thats why they are constantly asking for money
Making them dependent on aid, reduces the threat to Israel and divides the Arab world.
I figure bribery probably allows a much finer degree of coercion than one-off deals or punitive measures.
I figure the perceived "disobedience threshhold" beyond which the US can believably threaten to cut the funding is a lot lower than the perceived threshhold for something more dramatic like sanctions.
Suez Canal. The same reason the US supported Egypt over Israel in the 50s.
For influence over the Egyptian government
We essentially bribe the Egyptian government to leave the Suez Canal and Israel alone
Suez Canal. Same reason the country of Djibouti is so important despite is small size
Because israeli lobbies want it to. The US is paying Egypt to maintain the peace with israel. Israel also gets billions of course, as we all know.
I'm always amazed that americans haven't figured out yet that they're living in an israeli vassal state.
Israel is the vassal state.. to actually believe that the insanely strong and rich US is bowed to a small country such as Israel is insanity.. you have to be either really stupid/crazy/antisemtic to believe that
To keep Egypt away of Israel.
Because they support isreal in its genocide.
For access to the alien technology, duh!
So that Egypt doesn’t have to beg money from the Saudis or from other such religious fundamentalist gulf states. It’s divide and rule.
As part of the '79 agreement Egypt argued that they would not attack Israel in a repeat of the 73 war as long as the US could guarantee no repeat of the '67 war. The US could clearly not write a treaty guaranteeing to attack Israel, so they supplied military aid, aid very clearly designed to be effective but less effective than that supplied to Israel. That was used to buy tanks, attack helicopters, jet aircraft and air defence systems but it was also used to build bases, military housing and infrastructure which not only provided the military commanders with comfortable, modern and prestigious accomodation but some government linked folks with expensive construction contracts. The peace with Israel was deeply unpopular but by spreading some cheese around it softened the blow among people who were a real threat to the government. Unfortunately a couple of guys with rifles were not sufficiently satisfied.
Because.. they got Mo Salah..oh money money
It’s called buying friends. Doesn’t always work.
Money laundry
Egypt controls the Suez Canal. Go figure.
realpolitiks
This is answer for like 99% of foreign policy decisions.
Suez canal
To protect Israel by bribing or “incentivizing” their dictators, and ensuring that leadership has weapons to violently suppress their own population. Same with Jordan.
Two words.. Sueze Canal.
Corruption machine goes brrrrrr
Suez Canal
A man named Jimmy
Think of it this way...
Why do we give aid and support to impoverished Americans?
At a basic level, so they are content enough not to cause a problem.
Also so that they can maybe one day be useful to us, to get a job and pay taxes.
Egypt is all of that. Maintain stability, be useful.
Egypt borders Gaza/Palestine and it's coastal waters. The US controls their government, and that's been an issue for a very long time.
So the Egyptian government can prevent democracy there.
As others have explained it as part of a "don't try to invade Israel" deal since the 70's. It's soft power. It allows the US to say Hey Egypt we need your help with this thing or hey Egypt stop doing that thing or we pull funding.
Because Israel tells the US what to do. And chuck schumer is ok with that.
The Uncle Sam was walking in Cairo as a tourist and got scammed.
Lady Liberty was also groped.
Its the canal! The trade it keeps open for america is far more valuable than the equipment aid cost
Access to the Suez and to keep the Russians away and to keep them being nice to Israel
Two words- Suez. Canal.
Guess who they are protecting with that 🤑
They are our greatest ally
Greatest ally money can buy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxhj4Jg3dzU
So they can buy American-made armaments. The money goes from taxpayers to foreign governments to military contractors. In 2024, we gave $1.3 billion to Egypt, which they turned around and spent on $5 billion worth of armaments.
The other thing we're buying is political influence. We want Egypt to be governed by a secular regime, not Islamists. So we give them money, as an incentive to not indulge the Islamist elements in their domestic population. Egypt is an important country in the region. It's the most populous Arab nation, and it controls the Suez Canal. As a geopolitical rival, Egypt would be bad news for us. So we spend some money to keep them sweet.
Same reason why US pour billions of taxpayer dollars into Pakistan.
They give it back to lobbying firms.
It's not really aid when you can't decide what to do with the $
To deal with the Hamas militants on their border.
Basically to keep them reliant on US aid so that if they decide to not "play along" the US cuts funds and they are defenceless, playing along basically means not breaking the peace treaty with Israel and also freeing the suez canal
The suez canal and an agreement not to solve the Israel problem.
Suez canal
To keep out the Russians and Chinese. Chinese adventurism in Africa is tantamount to modern day colonialism. Several of the nations that changed alliance from the West to the Chinese soon will find out that the Chinese are no better than were the Russians.
When the military booted Morsi and the Moslem Brotherhood in 2013, Obama made a fuss. al-Sisi pointedly asked Ol' Barry if he wanted him to go to the Russians, instead.
Ever heard of the Suez Canal… how much trade goes through?
Because he (sisi) is a US backed dictator that maintains Western interests in the region
A better question is why we support other countries, not just Egypt. Look up the term "soft power" and you will see the benefits from helping other countries thru influences as opposed to war.
Or better yet… Israel.
Really is a bit puzzling.
It used to be, during the GWOT, that the US sent captives they wanted killed and "disappeared" to Egypt, but I don't think that's a big thing any more, certainly not common enough to warrant the sums the US gives Egypt now.
I mean they gave us the stargate
In the name and glory of Israel.
As with all American foreign policy in the MidEast; because it benefits Israel.
Controlling the Suez Canal.
Hey it’s a scheme - US Tax $ -> Egypt —> US Defense Contractors
It is additional billions to support Israel, by bribing Eqypt to make peace with them.
the enemy of your enemy is your friend
Wait until you see how much they give israhell
Hopefully they dont bomb paleshit
Because Egypt is nice to Israel, they control the Suez Canal, they help combat ISIS, etc. We have to pay people to be our friends, otherwise we wouldn't have any.
I wish we could join that coalition of governments that helps each other for no economic reason.
What are you talking about?
I wish we could join that coalition of governments that helps each other for no economic reason.
A bot I suppose
Everything is about money and power.
You don't say
I do say, and I'm getting downvoted for it. Apparently, there are still people who believe the US government actually cares about anyone but themselves.
Congrats. Now you know what geopolitic is.
Because Israel wants us to.
Bribing them to take in Palestinians eventually
The help keep them stable and to offset the Muslim brotherhood
Like pretty much anything which doesn't make sense for the USA, the answer is to benefit Israel.
Clearly the US doctrine is to waste money as long as big daddy Israel lives
Said another way, its job is to act as peace-keeping parent to a bunch of self-important, childish, backwards-ass, third-world Islamic groups that want all Jews eliminated from the region and can’t get along with anybody-even themselves.
Why are you telling me about hamas?
It's a payoff to protect America's colony (Israel). If Egypt and Jordan decided to blockade Israel, which they might if they were democracies, it would collapse. That's why America has to back their governments and provide massive amounts of funding.
Egypt signed a peace deal with Israel in 1979, and subsequently started receiving over a billion a year in aid from the US.
It is in their financial interest to keep the peace.
It also adds easy priority access to the Suez canal. And the quiet option to block others from it when desired.
honestly kinda wild how geopolitics is just vibes and direct deposits
Like any 9-5 job.
Its just a big high school that uses fancy words
Bro for millennia geopolitics was some dude’s family squabbling over real estate.
Oh wait.
Thats how the US bought influence across the globe.
My father worked for the defense department in foreign military sales, and his clients were Egypt and Israel, and he was basically the government's arms broker for the Camp David Accords.
Basically the agreement was at that time that Egypt would get exactly what Israel got. If Israel got a fighter jet, Egypt would get the identical one. Additionally, it was all paid with loans, and the loans would then be forgiven in their entirety. So in essence, even though they were functionality gifts, on paper the two countries paid for them.
My father was an odd sort of person of the type that normally only appears in fiction. I REALLY wish he'd written a memoir before he passed away.
I see in some news that the weapon supplied to Israel is always one generation ahead than those to Egypt.
“But you sold to both sides?”
“Did it ever occur to you that I wanted both sides to lose?”
"How do we arm the other eleven?"
Do you have any other stories you can share about him? Feel free to dm me them if you want
He just had an amazing series of careers. I think he was significantly ADHD; I am and I suspect I got it from him. He was career military, lived in Europe, earned a Bronze Star in Vietnam, served with Colin Powell and Schwartzkopf, commanded the HQ gunnery emplacement, resigned his commission because of Vietnam.
He went back to school and got a dual masters in economics and computer programming (Fortran and COBOL) and then went to work for the DoD. His first job there was being part of the team that developed the first electronic funds transfer protocol for direct deposits, and at the same time, creating the Y2K time bomb, because COBOL and Fortran. He wasn't allowed to retire until after 2001. But every time I got a paycheck direct deposited, he said I needed to thank him for that.
He got bored with that, so moved over to Foreign Military Sales, where his clients were Egypt, Israel, Turkey, and South Korea. He flew all over the world for meetings. He got into a huge fight with John Bolton in the middle of the Pentagon over the first Gulf War, literally screaming at each other, and my dad called Bolton a "Chicken Hawk," and said that it's "people like him that we the reason the life expectancy of a 2nd Lewey in Vietnam was 5 minutes.". He left foreign military sales after that.
He was put in as the Division Chief for the Air Force Security Accounting And Finance Center (SAAC, no idea where the F went.) He retired at the end of 2001, and sadly dropped dead from a heart attack at 70, in 2005. He was an amazing man.
That's not what was agreed to at Camp David.
Anyways, the Egyptian dude that agreed to it was assassinated for it.
Sensible.
This is the same deal that gives Israel money and more importantly says the USA can’t tell Israel what it can and can’t do with the military weapons.
outside of reasonable Assurances that USA weapons won’t intentionally massacre civilians in Israelis hands. Every time Israel does smash a civilian population there is a review, it might be a rubber stamp but civilian attacks aren’t intentional and targets are reviewed for civilian impact before being assigned.
This. Its for Israel. They have to be paid to live next to them.
We should add it to the Israel aid column. Jordan, the same. Israel drains the US dry in a multitude of ways.
We pay Israel to live next to Egypt too. You have to look at the big picture.
What? Israel gets paid TO exist in general, or else it wouldn't.
Egypt is also a soft military dictatorship, which the US supports. They got rid of the Islamist during the Arab spring.