Why Bother Passing Laws?

Today brought news of another end run by president Obama around the laws of the USA.  American statutes make very clear that foreign aid must be cut off to any country where there is a military coup.  The law was designed to dissuade armies around the world from taking over governments.  Without question, the army in Egypt ousted president Morsi and took control of the country.  That means a cutoff of aid, especially the billion plus dollars of military aid that the USA gives to Egypt each year.

For weeks since the ouster of Morsi, the Obama administration has been dancing around the issue of whether or not this is a coup.  They have been "investigating" what happened.  That is sort of like investigating daytime to determine if the sun is in the sky.  It is not a long process; it should take something under a second.

Today, Secretary of State Kerry was interviewed in Pakistan and the interview began with this exchange as reported by the Weekly Standard:

"QUESTION: Thank you very much for giving us time. My first question is about your commitment with democracy. The U.S. believes in democracy, U.S. is a champion of democracy all over the world. But why U.S. is not taking a clear position on military intervention against the democratically elected government of President Morsy in Egypt? 

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, it’s a very appropriate and important question, and I want to answer it very directly. The military was asked to intervene by millions and millions of people, all of whom were afraid of a descendance (sic) into chaos, into violence. And the military did not take over, to the best of our judgment so – so far. To run the country, there’s a civilian government. In effect, they were restoring democracy. And the fact is -- 

QUESTION: By killing people on the roads? "

 

This is truly stupid, even for Kerry (and that is truly saying something).  It may well be that this is one of those instances where the American interest is not to cut off aid.  If so, then Obama needs to make a finding waiving the requirements of the law (which he is specifically authorized to do by the statute.)  Simply lying about the facts, however, is not a rational way to proceed.