Arming Egypt, by Nizar Manek - English edition blogs
▻http://mondediplo.com/blogs/arming-egypt
The #US doesn’t want to lose its access to the pyramids, nor does it want to allow its bilateral ties with #Egypt — the world’s fourth largest F-16 operator — to go limp. The two main categories under which US military equipment are sold to foreign customers — Foreign Military Sales (FMS, from the US Department of Defense stockpiles) and Direct Commercial Sales (from the manufacturers) — are a form of industrial policy, labelled an act of “rent-seeking” by a political elite and a “rent-granting” state, or a “strategic effort” by the US government to finance the growth of the defence manufacturing sector of the American economy, maintain its expertise in a global market for #weapons deals, and bolster employment levels.