The “headline-grabber” read: “U.S. Plans New Arms Sales to Gulf Allies.”
Nothing startling there. For decades the United States has routinely sold or transferred weapons and ammunition, sent military teams abroad or brought foreign military personnel to the United States for training, and transferred technology that allowed “friendly” governments to produce almost state-of-the-art copies of U.S. weapons.
What was a surprise were two details in the article’s subheading. The main recipient of Uncle Sam’s largesse was Saudi Arabia, and the value of the deal was said to be $20 billion.
Sue N., why does that surprise you? The Americans and Saudis are best buddies. What is so strange about supporting an Islamic country who's leaders are not democratically elected, who don't allow for women's rights (or even human rights unless you are from the royal family)? And forget that 15 of the 9/11 high jackers were from Saudi (I mean we've forgotten about Bin Laden, why should we worry about where the dead attackers actually came from)? Let em have arms, afterall they need to defend themselves against Israel (who we also just sold arms to). I love war games, don't you?
Posts: 176 | Location: Seattle/UK | Registered: 17 March 2007
Armaments production is one of the few industries not targeted for outsourcing. A U.S. staple for jobs and channeling of tax dollars back into the economy.
The world's number one military state has to make sure the industry remains profitable as a back-up for its foreign policy through military means.
As long as military threat is a foreign policy tool, every president will support this sort of thing.
Retired Monk "Ideology is a disease"
Posts: 3412 | Location: denver co | Registered: 17 April 2007
Individuals are legally responsible for their views. Messages or parts of messages may be quoted or read on the radio, or reprinted in Thom's books and other materials.
Read-Only Topic
