Rand Paul Off-The-Wall On Egypt

by John M. Curtis
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Copyright July 11, 2013
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             Trying to cut off U.S. foreign aid to Egypt, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) shows why he lacks the foreign policy chops to be considered among the top GOP contenders in 2016.  Paul likes to cite technicalities when it comes to most of his foreign and domestic policy logic and decisions.  He wasted 13 hours filibustering the President Barack Obama’s CIA director nominee John O. Brennan to make a naïve point about the legality of targeting American citizens overseas involved in terrorism.  Paul’s Senate colleagues had no problem killing U.S.-born al-Qaeda’s Yemen terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki Sept. 30, 2011 in a predator drone strike.  Paul’s decisions are built on twisted Constitutional logic, including whether the president has the legal authority to order strikes on legitimate terrorist targets.  Paul raised no objections when former President George W. Bush did the same thing.

             Paul’s new non sequitur involves misinterpreting the U.S. law forbidding Congress from granting aid to a democratically elected government overthrown by a military coup.  Paul and other members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee know that U.S.-educated Mohamed Morsi was elected June 24, 2012 in a questionable election, most likely rigged by the Muslim Brotherhood.  When he took office June 30, 2012, he proceeded to grant himself supreme authority, immunity to judicial oversight, essentially hijacking the so-called “legitimate election” and allowing the Muslim Brotherhood to rewrite the Egyptian constitution to impose strict Islamic Sharia law on the Egyptian public.  While the White House hoped for the best, they knew that Egypt had been hijacked by radical Islam, seeking nothing short of breaking off its peace treaty with Israel.

             Paul’s narrow, technical interpretation of U.S. law indicates that he’s not fit for national office, let alone the U.S. Senate.  “The overthrow of the Egyptian government was a coup d’etat, and the law is clear that when a coup takes place, foreign aid must stop,” Paul said in a statement.  Paul knows that Morsi and the Brotherhood violated their electoral mandate by granting the newly formed Egyptian government supreme authority and immunity from judicial oversight.  Paul knows that Egypt’s military has been independent of the government since the late Anwar Sedat took over from Gamal Abdel Nasser Sept. 30, 1970.  When Sadat was assassinated Oct. 6, 1981 by Islamic extremists for making peace with Israel in 1979, the U.S. government expanded its aid to the Egyptian military to guard against another Islamic coup, preventing Egypt from falling into radical Islam.

              Since Morsi was tossed out of power by Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi July 3, Obama has been reluctant to show appropriate support to the Egyptian military.  Those inside the  Pentagon understand the Egyptian military indirectly gets its authority from the Pentagon.  While you can’t say that the Pentagon sponsored the coup, it’s reasonable to say that it backed ending Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood grip on power.  Paul insists that Obama is saying, “I am ignoring the rule of law.”  El-Sisi made it clear with a 48-hour warning to Morsi that the Egyptian military honored the popular will of the people that came out in the millions to reject Muslim Brotherhood rule.  “While we are concerned about events that lead to the removal of President Morsi from office, the fact is that millions of Egyptians do not see what happened as a coup,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

             U.S. specifically gives aid to the Egyptian military to prevent the kind of radicalization that resulted in Sedat’s assassination.  Israel officials aren’t unhappy about seeing Morsi go.  Known as a puppet from the Muslim Brotherhood, Morsi showed none of the independence needed to lead the vast majority of Eyptians or, for that matter, meet treaty obligations to maintain peace with Israel.  Paul’s attempt to cut off aid to Egypt would send the Mideast’s most populous country spiraling into civil war.  Muslim Brotherhood officials led by Mohammed Badie asked the Brotherhood to resist the new Egyptian government led by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Adly Mansor and former IAEA director Mohammed El-Baradei.  House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) praised the Egyptian military for working “on behalf of the citizens,” something Paul can’t or won’t see.

             Paul’s knee jerk criticism of U.S. policy wins him more Tea Party supporters but puts him way outside mainstream Republicans for 2016.  Egypt’s coup was backed by the Pentagon, which has a controlling stake in the Egyptian military.  Paul knows that Egypt’s military—a major cornerstone of U.S. Mideast policy—depends on U.S. aid and would be thrown into chaos by cutting off aid.  His narrow interpretation of “coup” fails to see that the Pentagon backed booting out Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.  Most educated Egyptians don’t support Islamic fundamentalism, at least in the government.  Paul knows that Egypt’s military didn’t overthrow Morsi’s government to impose itself over the Egyptian population.   It flexed its muscle only when it became obvious that Morsi betrayed his oath of office, granted himself Pharaoh-like power and tossed the revolution to the wind.  

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.