Cairo bloodbath prompts Rand Paul to condemn colleagues over Egypt aid

As Egyptian armed forces engaged in a brutal crackdown on anti-coup protesters, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul excoriated his Senate peers for their earlier votes to keep billions in U.S. military aid flowing.
 
“This is something that those who voted in Congress are going to have to live with,” he told Foreign Policy. “The question is: How does their conscience feel now as they see photographs of tanks rolling over Egyptian civilians?”
 
At least 638 people were killed on Wednesday when Egyptian military and police forces moved to clear two Muslim Brotherhood protest camps in Cairo. Thousands more were injured.
 
In late July, Paul proposed a Senate amendment to halt the $1.5 billion in promised U.S. aid to Egypt until the military renounces power and allows new elections. He argued that the Foreign Assistance Act barred the transfer of American aid to “any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by a military coup or decree.”
 
Paul’s proposal failed dramatically; only 13 senators supported the measure.
But with the Egyptian military now massacring protesters in the streets, the senator took his peers to task for their earlier claims that aid must continue for the United States to remain “engaged.”
 
“This mindset that if you don’t give people money and weapons, then you’re not engaged is bizarre,” he said. “I want to engage with the world, I just don’t want to be engaged in battle.”
 
“When you’re protesting in the streets and you’re run over by an American tank, you’re not going to be appreciative of American engagement,” he continued.
 
“Congress is way out of touch on this issue,” he said. “These people who believe in projecting American power, really believe in projecting American weakness. They don’t want us to respond to words with actions or obey our own laws.”  SOURCE