As I mentioned before, I do disagree with Rand Paul on this issue. I was all for cutting off aid to the Muslim Brotherhood, but now that they have been overthrown, I think we should be supporting the Egyptian military. They are the most pro-western and pro-Israel institution in Egypt and are currently fighting both al-Qaeda and Hamas in the Sinai. Giving aid to the Muslim Brotherhood and then cutting it off when they have been overthrown just sends the wrong signal.
That said, I thoroughly enjoyed his response to his critics on the Senate floor yesterday. Their arguments were basically:
1. If we don't sell them F-16's, they will get their jets somewhere else.
2. Cutting off aid will help the jihadists
3. This is not the way we do things here. We need to be slow.
His responses were really classic. To the first point he very simply and clearly stated "they don't have any money!" So to say they will "buy" the jets someplace else is a bit stupid. To the second point he mentions that the very same people who are criticizing him now, criticized him when he wanted to stop funding the Muslim Brotherhood. He said "these same people were for funding the jihadists just a few months ago!" On the third and final point he simply states that he doesn't believe them when they say they will get to it in the future in a slow in measured pace "someplace, sometime in some fictitious committee".
Great stuff. I clipped it from c-span, please watch the whole thing:
No comments:
Post a Comment