Friends don't penalise you with double standards
Re: "Best friends should be true and tell you of your faults", Letters, September 28.
Though both were military coups, America responded very differently to the ousting of Egypt’s elected president Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and the fall of Yingluck Shinawatra’s government a year later.
The US avoided calling events in Egypt a coup, preferring the phrase “military intervention” and maintaining its annual $1.5 billion in military and economic aid to the country. (Under US law, the government must suspend foreign aid to any nation whose elected leader is ousted in a coup.) The elected president Morsi turned out to be a religious hardliner, determined to force Islamic law on the country, leading Washington to believe it was at risk of losing a major North African ally. Despite having been democratically elected, Morsi had to go.
By contrast, Yingluck was always a “good girl” in the eyes of the US. That’s why Washington called the coup here by its proper name, denounced it and suspended military aid to Thailand.
Somsak Pola
