I found it helpful (having been to lazy to really figure out myself what was going on since it seemed the Arab Spring just happened) so a self *promote

Self promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Friday, July 5th, 2013 2:29pm PDT - promote requested by original submitter RFlagg.

*learn

Adding video to channels (Learn) - requested by eric3579.

I'd upvote more if I could. Normally I want to add a bunch, but he really more or less hit the high points right on through. Well done.

Because I can't resist adding though, the 'unusual' nature of Egypt's military owning and running most land, industry and business in the nation is more unusual to us than to other regions. Pretty much ALL military dictatorships are exactly like this. It's regrettably not nearly as rare as it should be.

Since the Egyptian military is funded by the U.S. and not the Egyptian civilian government, I don't know how the civilian government will ever manage to control it.


An interesting situation that will, sadly, offset my plans to go visit the pyramids.

It does seem an odd oversight to not mention how much money the Egyptian military gets from America. It's no secret they get billions, and will no doubt play a big role in decision making.

The wording "is funded by the US gov" is misleading though to in that it implies the majority of funding for Egypt's military is coming from the US. That's simply not true. The US donates upwards of 1 billion to the Egypt as a whole, the percentage that goes direct to military isn't disclosed that I can see, but it's safe to say with the military running/owning the entire country it is primarily going to the military. The flipside is that so is the majority of Egypt's domestic $230 billion GDP. The US contribution no doubt influences Egypt's military decision making, but not so as to dominate them. More over, purely diplomatic pressure from the US will hold more sway over any party in Egypt than that kind of money.

All that said, I don't see the omission as so terribly glaring. Pressure from American foreign policy, and foreign policy of ALL world governments, plays a role on Egyptian domestic matters, but it's ranking for overall influence is beneath the topics hit in the talk. The talk seems well prioritized, and US financial aid ranks even lower than policy pressure so I don't begrudge, or even find surprise, at it's omission.

If you overstate the influence of America it can quickly reach a racist point where the underlying logic is that the poor egyptians and arabs are so weak and ineffectual that they can't be expected to stand against a mere whim of white westerners.