In Middle East arms bazaar, we’re always thinking ahead
“More weapons to Israel,” says A, as the waiter refills the coffee cups. “And that’s a good idea … why?”
“It’s obvious,” says B.
The coffee is fresh, the morning is young. There’s nothing else on A’s schedule for hours. He can afford to be patient.
“Completely obvious,” says B, punctuating his pronouncement with a long, slow swallow.
“Help me,” says A.
“You give more weapons to Israel,” B explains, as if to a large melon, “or they’ll object to you giving more weapons to Egypt.”
A brief silence, as A considers this new information. There’s still something not quite right about it.
So we’re giving arms to one country so it can keep at bay the second country to whom we’ve also given arms to keep the first country at bay. Got it. We’re in the business of exporting arms races to the rest of the world!
U.S. Arms Sales Preserve Israel’s Edge
When the United States sells state-of-the-art weapons systems to Arab nations, it invariably provides even more lethal and sophisticated arms to its steadfast ally, Israel, in order to help counter the firepower of its neighbors.
So, when Egypt gets the M60A3 and M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, Israel gets the TOW-2A and Hellfire anti-tank missiles to blow up the Egyptian vehicles — in the event of a military confrontation between the two countries currently wedded to the 1979 Camp David peace treaty.
Likewise, when the United States grudgingly provides McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, Israel is armed either with Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles or Hawk and Stinger surface-to-air missiles to bring down the U.S.-supplied Saudi aircraft.
Every U.S. government has ensured that no weapons sales to Arab nations would undermine Israel’s traditional “qualitative (military) advantage” over its perceived rivals.
What else can the US export?
The Saudis keep Iran in check long term. Before them it was Iraq.
…and we all know what happening in Iraq
Another reason?
Well, because it ‘s “..ta fight da war on terrrrrr…”
I’ll bet, if you could add death to the trade equation, the U.S. is not actually running a trade deficit at all! They’re running a ‘booming’ trade surplus.
#2. Saudi military competence is, shall we say, a myth. They had bought billions in arms from us prior to the Gulf War and Saddam’s army would have rolled right over them, and everyone knew it.
The stuff we are selling them now may well wind up in the hands of the Islamic Republic of Arabia 10 years from now in a replay of Iran 79.
Yet another brainstorm out of the Bush Administration.
Somebody read darkroastedblend here
Um, What’s The Reason Again?
Um … because we like to arm our enemies to the teeth.
Oh yeah … I forgot … the Saudis are our friends. Someone please remind me of the numbers of Iraqis, Saudis, and Afghanis that hijacked our planes on 9/11. Oh never mind, I remember now it was ZERO, SIXTEEN, AND THREE, respectively. That’s right, remember? Zero Iraqis; Sixteen Saudis.
Let’s not forget Russia and the French make pretty good arms also.
When I graduated with a double E major I was offered two jobs. One was to work for the U.S. military designing warhead missiles which I turned down because I didn’t want to be involved with killing. The second was at minimum wage moving furniture. I sweated my ass off for a few months.
They wouldn’t have weapons if no one designed and built them.
Mark my words… those Middle East weapons will be turned against the USA eventually.
Remember Iran during the Shah? Nobody really thought that the regime would actually fall the way that it did… heck, we sold over 70 F-14 fighters (our most advanced weapon at the time) just three years before the Shah was deposed. (Fortunately they were sabotaged by departing US contractors)
The same thing will happen in most Middle East countries… the inclination was there before the Iraq occupation, the destiny is there now.
The Middle East will turn fully fundamentalist, and the weapons that we give them now will be used against us sooner that you realize.
So I guess now it was Saudi Arabia behind 9/11? There were so many Saudi’s because Bin Laden is Saudi and his primary recruiting point wasn’t Israel or Iraq, but that the US had troops on Saudi soil.
At a guess, State Department is behind it. They have a long history of lying to Presidents. The first I heard of was them mistranslating the Mexican President’s “Kiss my balls” to Reagan, which is somewhat understandable. The lies about the Cold River killings (two diplomats murdered by Arafat) are less forgivable, especially as State put Arafat on the dole so he would not do it again instead of having him killed, or at least brought to court and charged.
They behave like a bunch of perverts trying to get as many mass murderers’ autographs as they can.
But, Bush falling in line with it, is simply evidence he is further left than I thought.
No, MikeN, no one’s posting, except yours, implies that Saudi Arabia was behind 9/11.
Perhaps they were not behind it, yet 16 of their citizens out of the 19 involved in personally perpetrating 9/11 ‘ brought it on ‘, to use an infamous 9/11 related phrase, by being personally, directly and intimately involved in performing the actual acts of destruction.
Only Bin Laden can say with accuracy what his primary recruiting point was.
You and I may be interested in that, others are not interested at all.
http://tinyurl.com/yvsa5r
‘ So I don’t know where he [Osama bin Laden] is. You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.’ George W. Bush, 2002
Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo®
This has been US policy for about 50 years or more. Nothing new here.
Everyone knows, including Iran that the Saudi’s can’t even fly most of the planes they buy and aren’t even close to being profcient in the technical knowledge nessesary to operate the systems they are buying. They are safe only because we keep a huge contingent of ex-military there to train them and operate the systems if need be. It’s the real reason we keep troops in the Kingdom, to protect the goverment. It’s the worst kept secret in the Middle East….seems only the people on the street have no clue to just how inept the Saudi military really is.
At least the Egyptians, Turks, Morroccans and Irani’s actually knew how to use what we sell them(or used to…laughingly said…in Irans case)
John,
We didn’t “Give” the hardware the to Saudis. We SOLD it to them, for money. However, we do GIVE hardware to Egypt and Israel, directly or indirectly (through grants).
So in a round-about way, the Saudis are paying for Israeli military hardware.
As for the Saudi involvement in 9/11. bin Laden was not a Saudi citizen before 9/11. Saudi Arabia had revoked his citizenship because of his terrorist activities. Saudi Arabia is not blameless. They allowed their religious nutters to “go nuts” and gave them way too much leeway. Still do, but to a lesser degree, today.
Afghanistan (and Pakistan) carry the responsibility for hosting Al Quida in their lands.
#12 – MikeN & #14 – Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo®,
Actually, my post was implying that at least 17 Saudis were behind 9/11. 16 in aircraft plus Osama bin Forgotten himself. Yes. He’s Saudi too.
This does not mean that the Saudi government was behind it. In fact, the correct place to put the blame is, as it so often but not always is, on religion.
On 9/11, god blessed America. Let’s hope s/he leaves us the fuck alone for a while now.
Anyone who does not believe this is deliberately ignoring the words of the man behind the attacks. Osama bin Laden will tell you in no uncertain terms that he is following the words of the Quran to the letter.
This is one of the reasons that he has such support. He is a wealthy educated man leading a meager lifestyle and fighting the infidels.
The Judeo-Christian-Islamic mythology does not promote peace.
Anyway, all of this is a tad off-topic. The real topic is that we’re yet again arming a militant extremist third world country with no history of democracy or of recognition of human rights. Last time it was a secular totalitarian government; this time it’s a true full-blown theocracy.
This can’t be a good thing.
I guess in 10 years or so we will get to destroy those toys when the country we gave them to turns on us. History repeats itself when ignorant leaders dont learn from the past
There were so many Saudi’s because Bin Laden is Saudi and his primary recruiting point wasn’t Israel or Iraq, but that the US had troops on Saudi soil.
You forgot to say “Clinton”.
Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton Clinton
#19 – Atomic Bitchwax,
Trying not to be obnoxious about this (and somewhat failing), you are aware that W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W W was in office for 9 months when 9/11 happened, right?
Clinton was in office like Iraqis were on the planes.
But, other than that, yes, every American administration in recent history has helped to arm our enemies to the teeth. As we continue to burn oil (and fight for it) rather than spending our money on renewable energy, we also continue to arm terrorists. The money they use to buy arms and bombs comes from oil.
If we really want to disarm the region, let’s go to solar, wind, tidal, and other energy sources. Then the entire Middle East can slip back into the obscurity it so richly deserves. And, they won’t be able to afford to buy the weapons here or anywhere else.
And then I woke up. Dang.
You compared the number of Saudis to Iraqis and Afghanis. The US is currently at war with the other two, so I think that’s the implications of your post.
Trying not to be obnoxious about this (and somewhat failing), you are aware that W W W W W W W W W W W\
You missed my point. No offense taken.
I was merely pointing out that a neocon cheerleader made a post but forgot to use the mandatory word “clinton”.
“Global warming”…………… CLINTON!
9/11……………….. CLINTON
warrantless wiretaps……….. CLINTON
blah blah blah.
#21 – MikeN,
If you’re referring to my post, as it seems you are, my implications are:
1. The Saudis are not our friends.
(So, let’s keep them at arms length, rather than keeping them armed.)
2. We did not go to war with Iraq over 9/11.
(Perhaps, just perhaps, it was for oil. Perhaps, this was first suggested by Kissinger in 1973 as a means of control, rather than for profit. Perhaps this was supported by every single presidential administration since then, repugnican and democrap alike. Just perhaps.)
Does that clear up my sentiments?
More on the whole issue of why we went to war and the possibility that this was planned for more than 30 years, but only W actually did it. Just in case my prior post sounds a bit far-fetched to anyone.
http://tinyurl.com/6e5kt
Scotts right – it’s all W’s fault. Hell look at the retroactive Internet conspiracy: Algore invented the thing but websites all start with “WWW”…..
#25 – iGW,
Thanks for taking the time to actually read my post. No wait. You didn’t read any of it. You just saw my string of W’s in response to a string of Clintons. Perhaps you should actually take the time to read a post before mocking it. Perhaps you should take the time to actually read something, anything, before you post the same old drivel every time you turn your computer on.
You mean drivel like we’re all gonna die from global warming?
(BTW, I did read the article.)
#27 – iGW,
(BTW, I did read the article.)
Really? But your post did not indicate anything about it and made statements about my post that had no relevance to my post. So, I thought it was natural to assume that you looked at my post and just saw W.
You mean drivel like we’re all gonna die from global warming?
I don’t say that in every post. In fact, I haven’t mentioned the topic on this thread yet, other than to quote you here.
I’m too tired to respond to the article as it doesn’t stir me up enough. Your W’s just gave me an idea to toss off a response to the reflexive “everything W does is bad” tone of the thread. ( speaking of same old, same old – Bush bashing is a great example.)
more guns. woot