Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Partners in Profiteering: Defense Firms and Diplomats in Post-Revolutionary Egypt

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Partners in Profiteering: Defense Firms and Diplomats in Post-Revolutionary Egypt

Click here to access article by Shana Marshall from Jadaliyya.

The author provides abundant evidence of the key role played by the US military-industrial complex in the affairs of Egypt, and that is not likely to change regardless of which puppet occupies the head of state in Egypt--unless, of course, the Egyptian people can mount a true revolution.

...it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the US defense industry in shaping the Egyptian-American alliance, and it is a fact that most (if not all) diplomatic missions act on behalf of their nation’s defense industries to promote exports. However, it is rare to stumble across an example of the tools these diplomatic missions use in the course of such duties.