It would be helpful to have a sense of the overall, long-term plan in this case (as in so many others), wouldn’t it? Considering that moves like this by our representative government are done in our name.
In the absence of that information, as I see stories like this, in which a $20 billion dollar package that includes satellite-guided 2,000-pound bombs is proposed to be distributed into the most volatile region on earth, it can seem like escalation and the fueling of aggression are the only ideas on the table, and advanced weapons the primary tools of diplomacy. Are they really?
I’ll freely admit that I could be missing something, but past actions in the region haven’t provided much basis for confidence in this proposal. I know one thing, though; things change, sometimes rapidly and radically. In the past few decades the U.S. has backed both the leadership of pre-9/11 Afghanistan and Saddam’s Iraq when it served our government’s interests to do so. Allies and enemies change. And what’s the shelf-life of a JDAM?
-jh
from Barbara Starr, for CNN
The United States is developing a proposed $20 billion, 10-year arms sales package for Saudi Arabia, a senior administration official confirmed on Saturday.
The proposed sale, first reported in The New York Times, is intended to upgrade the Saudi military’s ability to counter possible Iranian aggression in the Persian Gulf region, the official said.
One of the more controversial proposals will probably be selling the Saudis, for the first time, satellite-guided bombs known as JDAMs. The sale may include a 500-pound and a 2,000-pound version of the aerial bomb.
The Israelis are said to be very concerned about the Saudis having that precision-strike capability, so the United States will discuss basing the weapons as far away from Israel as possible, the official said.
