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| Middle East |
| US pulls out of joint military exercises in Egypt |
| 2003-08-11 |
| The US military will not participate in multinational military exercises with Egypt due to its increasing troop commitments elsewhere in the world, the US embassy in Cairo said on Sunday. Among other reasons. The annual exercises, one of the world’s largest multinational military manoeuvres, are scheduled to be held in September. "It seems best to take a temporary break from this exercise as we did after operation Desert Storm," an embassy spokesman said, quoting a statement from the US defence department and referring to the 1991 Gulf War. Western diplomatic sources said that the US withdrawal would effectively cancel this year’s Bright Star multinational exercises, financed in part by the United States. Make that, mostly financed The last Bright Star exercises, which take place every other year, were held in October 2001 near El-Alamein in northeast Egypt, scene of one of the fiercest battles in World War II, with around 65,000 soldiers and heavy equipment. In 2001, 18,000 US soldiers participated alongside 40,000 Egyptian and 1,100 French soldiers, as well as troops from Italy and eight other countries. French, huh? Maybe another reason to cancel it. Even during the US-led war in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks, the United States had not withdrew from the exercises. Another cause/effect action that they’ll miss. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 Can you picture a time, a situation, when we will be fighting alongside the Egyptians? Me neither - at least not one where we actually have the same goals. Having joint exercises with them, therefore, is questionable. On one hand it reveals tactics and capabilities I would rather not share with an utterly Izzoid-infiltrated Arab asshat govt. On the other, perhaps it would give them a few reasons to consider never opposing us. The US does take these exercises seriously, normally. But I favor the "don't tip your hand" approach. Fuck 'em. They are not allies or even friends. Our arrangements with Mubarek make me just as queasy as those we have (had?) with the Saudis - I want to take a shower after each encounter. |
| Posted by: ·com 2003-8-11 10:14:03 PM |
| #2 Sounds like a result of our troops being over-deployed. |
| Posted by: Cal Ulmann 2003-8-11 12:16:41 PM |
| #1 welll, we already had training exercises for our troops involving live fire, Baathists, Fedayeen, etc. You Egyptians seem to be hesitant to restrain your spittle-spewing nutbags as well as the shipment of arms via tunnels to Gaza, making us wonder why we keep arming and training you. Take a time out in the corner to think about it |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-8-11 10:12:01 AM |