Quote:
Originally Posted by Daldolma
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
theoretically, of course. but that's obviously not how the world works. "aid" is really just buying influence. in critical regions, we buy as much as we can. israel just more readily sells influence than most of the region
|
I feel like in one sense you answered my question, but on the other hand I don't. Maybe I didn't really ask the right way, or I'm not really sure what my question is. I understand that naive notions of countries ruling in entirely in their self-interest are not really true, and that whoever is in charge will make decisions based on their interests or whatever special interests they cater to. But why should we "buy" influence from this country? How does it benefit the people of the United States? Does this make them less anti-Israel? It seems like us sending aid to them is to appease them slightly since we aid another country that regularly antagonizes the rest of the region. I find it hard to believe that if we had no presence at all in the middle east and stayed completely neutral in these conflicts that Egypt would take an anti-American economic policy.