is a drop in the bucket compared to the amount that the gulf arab states, who happen to be close american allies as well, saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, qatar, it's a drop in the bucket compared to what they have offered, money that they've shovelled to the government in cairo in just the last six weeks. so if the u.s. wants to be heard, probably a good way to do that would be to convince close allies like saudi arabia and qatar and the uae to maybe not hand over more than $10 billion in aid in just six weeks to the government in cairo. >> general, given what ivan said, given our friendship with egypt, given the strategical, geographic importance of this country, what if the u.s. and egypt cut off ties altogether? what would happen then? >> if we did that, here's the likely scenario. you have a radical shia iran to the east. you've got a radical sunni egypt to the west. you've got israel right in the middle. the u.s. has very little -- at