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Kirby said Mullen has offered no advice to the Egyptians, neither urging them to counsel Mubarak to resign nor asking them about specific military plans for dampening the street violence. Instead he has sought simply to keep the lines of communication open and, by praising the military's restraint, make clear that Washington expects them to continue to avoid a harsh crackdown. President Barack Obama appeared to be sending a similar message to the military when he said Tuesday, "I want to commend the Egyptian military for the professionalism and patriotism that it's shown thus far in allowing peaceful protests while protecting the Egyptian people." The Egyptian military is the power base of Mubarak's regime. He's a former air force pilot. The army ousted the monarchy soon after it seized power in a 1952 coup, and all of the country's presidents since have come from the ranks of the military. The current scope of U.S. military assistance began with the signing of Egypt's landmark peace treaty with Israel in 1979. It totaled $1.3 billion last year and includes air, land and naval support. Egypt is just one example of how the Pentagon has sought over time to improve its standing with foreign militaries by selling them U.S. weaponry, providing long-term technical support, holding joint exercises, having regular face-to-face meetings at senior levels, and bringing junior and mid-level officers to the U.S. to attend institutions like the National Defense University and the Army's Command and General Staff College. The curriculum includes instruction in human rights, the principle of civilian control of the military, the U.S. Constitution and other elements of democracy. The theory is that such interaction will make foreign military leaders more inclined to accept U.S. views on the proper role of a military in society. Pentagon officials have often cited Pakistan as an example of how this influence can be lost or diminished when military-to-military ties are severed, as they were in the 1990s as a punitive U.S. response to Islamabad's development of nuclear weapons. That left the U.S. military struggling to rebuild trust and regain influence among Pakistani military officers when the Bush administration launched its war on terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. Egypt is a particularly important U.S. ally because it was the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel and remains an important player in broader Arab-Israeli peace efforts. Mubarak attended ceremonies in Washington in September marking a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, and he hosted the first formal round of talks shortly afterward in Egypt. By controlling the Suez Canal, Egypt also plays a key role in the movement of world oil supplies.
[Associated
Press;
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