Page 18 - Nm 1 News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Strings for the egyptian military, this is the point that the u.s. can really exert some control and some restraint on the part of this military? >> well, lester, i'm not too sure or purse strings are all that strong. this is a $5.8 billion defense budget. we essentially have been given about $1 billion plus a year, mostly to buy our military equipment. f-16s, m-1 tanks, naval vessels, et cetera. our influence on them will be more through the training we provided their officers over the last 30-some-odd years. we do know that we have a military mission in egypt. there are extremely open with u...

Are doing. nor do i assume that that military supreme council has thought through what are they going to do next. this is a pretty staggering problem. 80 million people impoverished, 350,000-person secret police and police force that is despised. what do you do next? >> and, you know, at the beginning of this a lot of us were saying how important the military's role would be in all of this. have they really kept a lid on? >> well, i mean so far. to be honest, it is astonishing to me. i repeat, 18 million people in cairo, a lot of them incredibly impoverished and desperate. the police have disa...

And surrounded. and there is the live pictures. again, these are coming in. there are tent cities down there in liberation square. general, as we're watching this, just asking you, the united states may not have the same level of relationship with some of these military council members. >> i think we have extremely close relationships with them. there is a variety of educational opportunity we had to touch these folks during their development over time. we have a significant on the ground military mission there. as you know, the egyptians have brought f-16s, u.s. navy combat vessels, m-1 tanks...

Military have a different reaction to that crowd, and i sure hope that's not the case, i think some will see them as emissaries of the united states. where, as you've been noting, chris, right now, you don't see punching american flags. you don't see hateful speech being directed towards the u.s. which comes as a relief. >> all right. michael, general, thanks to both of you. i should ask you guys, because, you know, i'm going to have to say good-bye, do you want to see who you're rooting for on sunday? general, are you a big football fan? >> oh, yeah. both great teams. the packers always have ...

Important role in that regard. mubarak was very supportive. gave us political cover and support. when it comes to afghanistan, the way that we can use egypt as a transit route and through the canal is very important. there are many strategic interests which are served rela mubarak. >> he has also been very well served by $2 billion a year, though, since the camp david accords. i mean, the egyptian military is the tenth largest in the world because it's full of f-16s and m-1 tanks and chinook helicopters and missiles and all the rest of it. we may not be propping him up but i'm not sure he is s...