The Obama administration rebuked Egypt’s ruling generals last week for their bloody crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood by suspending the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of military aid. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. would withhold several big-ticket items—including Apache helicopters and F-16 fighter jets—until Egypt made “credible progress toward an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government.” A spokesman for the Egyptian military, which toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi this summer, denounced the U.S. for “abandoning Egypt as it fights a serious war against terror.” But senior U.S. officials said much of the $1.5 billion annual aid package to Egypt would continue to flow, including support for Cairo’s anti-terrorism and border control efforts.
This punitive measure was long overdue, said the Los Angeles Times in an editorial. The junta has used U.S.-supplied guns to kill more than 1,000 Islamist demonstrators following its overthrow of Egypt’s democratically elected president. This aid cut may not persuade the generals to change course, but it could help redeem the U.S.’s “reputation as a champion of democracy.”
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