2007-07-28

Hey, let's arm Saudi Arabia to the teeth!

And Israel, too! It will be really cool.

The Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors that is expected to eventually total $20 billion at a time when some United States officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq.

The proposed package of advanced weaponry for Saudi Arabia, which includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to its fighters and new naval vessels, has made Israel and some of its supporters in Congress nervous. Senior officials who described the package on Friday said they believed that the administration had resolved those concerns, in part by promising Israel $30.4 billion in military aid over the next decade, a significant increase over what Israel has received in the past 10 years.
Funny that to sell $20 billion in arms to the Saudis, they have to pledge $30 billion in weapons to Israel.

5 comments:

Paul Hue said...

I could certainly support giving neither country any military aid. I assume that the Bushies feel that arming SA will counter Iraq, and provide some assistance with the Sunnis in Iraq. But I'm growing weary of the Big Gov approach to foreign policy, reverting back to my natural libertarian disposition: let the bastards victimize each other, and leave the innocent to their own devices... one of which is the nasty business of fighting for civilization as hard as the bastards are for their little kingdoms.

So what is it, then, that the lefty anti-warriors want the US to do about Darfur?

Nadir said...

I think the Bushies are giving aid to the Saudis in anticipation of already growing anti-US sentiment there, and possibly soon to be anti-Saud dissidents.

Nadir said...

Good point from
WhatReallyHappened.com

Since when does a foreign government get to approve US trade deals???

Paul Hue said...

Nadir: You see conspiracies everywhere. Foreign leaders approve or disapprove of each others decisions all the time; in the case of allies, leaders often seek to articulate policies that will have the support of each other.

Military aid to SA to suppress anti-US revolution by people even worse than the royal family makes sense to me, though the royal family is pretty bad.

Paul Hue said...

My libertarian nature suggests to me that the US should get out of the foreign aid business. But does selling weapons count as foreign aid?