Egypt Cannot Possibly Use All Of Its US-Made Tanks 'Short Of An Alien Invasion'

08-08-2013 • http://www.businessinsider.com, Michael Kelley

Julia Simon of NPR reports that experts see no need for many of the hundreds of fighter jets and thousands of tanks that the U.S. has sent Egypt since the late '80s.

"There's no conceivable scenario in which they'd need all those tanks short of an alien invasion," Shana Marshall of the Institute of Middle East Studies at George Washington University told NPR.

So why does the U.S. keep sending tanks and jets? Simon points to the military-industrial complex:

Every year, the U.S. Congress appropriates more than $1 billion in military aid to Egypt. But that money never gets to Egypt. It goes to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, then to a trust fund at the Treasury and, finally, out to U.S. military contractors that make the tanks and fighter jets that ultimately get sent to Egypt.