Why have one when you can work on both

With all the turmoil that Egypt has been through in the last months there is one thing that stroke me after the fact. All in all it all went smoothly. Compare with what is happening right now in Libya and you will convene that the Egyptian revolution went relatively peacefully.

I wondered why. And I realized that its the army that took the street to protect the people. They separated the pro Mubarak and those who were against him. The army did not take sides. So once again I asked myself why? And I god my answer when I read this article in the Economist.

In this article you understand that the USA did not only have access to the head of the regime. They also had access to its military heads. Now what a clever strategy! I didn't thought of that!

First you tell the regime that, if you keep peace with Israel, the regime will get $1 billions per year as long as the treaty is kept.

Second you tell the regime that this $1 billion will be well spent in modernizing the regime military that was equipped with obsolete soviet equipment. Then you present to the regime a galaxy of US representatives from military company that can "help" the regime modernize. So the billion dollar per year comes back to the USA and makes the US citizens work. And the regime gets modernized. Everybody remains happy ever after.

End of the story? No!

You know that despot regime are unstable and can be overcome. So having strings with the regime is not enough. You need to make sure that your hand will remain firm on the country even if the regime get replaced. So what do you do?

Third, you invite the regime head military into USA to get "trained" and get some useful formations. But while they're there, you develop strings with them. Military for military the US general can develop close strings with the regime's general. And the subordinates can do the same thing.

So when turmoils hit, the general from the regime calls his US "mentor" for advices. And what happens is that without any political intervention from the US president (that could upset the anti american Muslims in the area) you have a friendly army that takes the country over and, as an added bonus, remain a US friend.

Now how about that for a strategy?! Clever.