WASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain today blasted President Obama for his handling of the crisis in Egypt, saying it has left the United States with “no credibility” in the Middle East.
“There is no policy and there is no strategy, and therefore we react and we react poorly,” McCain declared on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
McCain (R-Ariz.) called for cutting off $1.3 billion in annual military aid to Egypt, reversing his previous position after the military government killed more than 800 people cracking down on Islamist protestors.
He joined a growing bipartisan chorus calling for an ending to the generous US aid payments after Egypt’s military regime ousted democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi last month.
“I wanted to give [Egypt’s military officials] an opportunity to do the right thing after the coup had taken place,” McCain said, explaining his shifting stance.
“For us to sit by and watch this happen is a violation of everything that we stood for,” McCain said of the bloodshed in Egypt. “There are many areas where we could exercise influence over the generals, and we’re not doing any of it, and we’re not sticking with our values.”
“We do have influence, but when you don’t use that influence then you do not have that influence,” he said.
McCain said that the Obama administration’s reluctance to take action against Egypt was part of a pattern of botched Middle East policies, including failing to stem the bloody civil war in Syria or curtail Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
“We are much more hated and much less respected than we were in 2009,” he said of the US reputation in the Muslim world.
Calls for ending aid to Egypt also came from Obama’s Democrats.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim elected to Congress, said he backed following US law that prohibits military aid following a coup.
“I would cut off aid but engage in intense diplomacy in Egypt and in the region to try to say, ‘Look, we will restore aid when you stop the bloodshed in the street and set up a path towards democracy that you were on before,’” Ellison said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“In my mind, there’s no way to say that this was not a coup. It is. We should say so. And then follow our own law, which says we cannot fund the coup leaders.”
Obama interrupted his vacation on Martha’s Vineyard last week to give a speech condemning the crackdown in Egypt. But he stopped short of threatening to end the aid.