Political unrest has been going on in Egypt for quite some time. And it doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon.

After President Mohamed Morsi began expanding his powers past what was given to him, the military ousted him from office and took control of the government. Recently, American students, including those from MSU who were on study abroad, were evacuated from Egypt, as well as other U.S. citizens after tensions began escalating.

The United States annually supports Egypt in military aid with $1.3 billion. And for the time being, America needs to take itself out of the uprising.

This country has a problem with getting itself into conflicts it doesn’t really need to be involved in, spending too much time and too much money in its effort. For once, the U.S. needs to take a step back and realize this is a situation it might not need to involve itself in.

It seems anytime the U.S. involves itself in a situation in the Middle East, what it tries to do seems to always backfire, such as when it put Saddam Hussein in control of Iraq and supplied him with money and military aid, and years later, it eventually had to go back and take him out. America doesn’t always know what’s best.

And what the U.S. needs to avoid at all costs is getting involved in what quite possibly could turn into a civil war – especially getting involved in one so personal. 

The U.S. military is in too many conflicts as it is, and when it does get involved in something, it has a knack of staying longer than it should.

The U.S. easily could take some of the $1.3 billion it’s using and put it toward other needs this country could fix, such as education, health care or the deficit. It already spends more than 50 percent of its annual budget on military efforts, so putting forth a good chunk of it in a conflict where it has no business getting involved in would be wasteful spending, especially for a country that is not normally an enemy and never has been.

It is a volatile situation in Egypt, with two sides not willing to budge. And with a heavy Muslim population and this occurring during Ramadan, a time for reflection, prayer and fasting, it speaks to how passionate the Egyptian population is about change. It would appear U.S. money is not going to change how these people feel.

If things escalate to a point where the U.S. feels the need to send money or military a, it always can make that choice. Nothing will be lost if the government decides to play the waiting game.

But America can’t afford to be supporting so many nations when it is having a hard time supporting itself with many people facing economic hardship. In this one instance, it might be best to step back and watch how this situation plays out.