After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made

by Ben Rhodes

The Egyptian government has a peace treaty with Israel. It is backed by the oil-rich Saudis. It casts itself as an ally in the War on Terror. In return, the United States provides those billions of dollars in arms that are actually payments to job-creating American defense contractors who then turn over the weapons to the Egyptian government. To America, all of those interests have been more significant than the interests of those sixty thousand prisoners, or the absurdity of that same Egyptian government’s trying to radicalize their own opponents to create terrorists in order to justify those billions of dollars in assistance. Such is the logic of our forever war.