Bush Admin Pushes Towards Saudi Arms Sales

In a rather obvious attempt to destabilize the region and benefit U.S. arms dealers, it appears the Bush administration is finally ready to move ahead with the long since planned arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other smaller, even more unstable states in the gulf region. That plan also involved Israel, which are getting well over a billion in missiles, fighter jets, and aid. Israel was even convinced into agreeing with the Saudi deal, or at least pretended to believe in the reason of building a force against Iran and Syria by aiding such an unstable and questionable ally. Of course they're only thinking of their own national interests, while our government is thinking of anyone but ours. Americans get the big screw as usual. The $10+ billion package for the Saudis includes everything from ships to special smart bombs. The argument that the selling of arms will somehow more stabilize the Middle East is completely bogus. Since when has the region stopped their racing for the biggest and best weaponry possible? This is of complete disregard and contradiction to our current national security and will only create even more hostility for the U.S. in the region. The neocons and their supporters are certainly at a race against time, and the Democrats undoubtedly won't do anything about it. It is just one dictatorship of suppression rewarding another.

The deals could be worth a combined total of $20 billion over the years, Pentagon officials have told Congress, which has 30 days to vote to block a proposed sale from the formal notification date, but rarely does so.

The pre-notification clock that started on Tuesday lasts 20 days, meaning the formal process could start as soon as December 4 or so -- leaving Congress little time to debate the issues before it recesses for the year.

The State Department and the Defense Department jointly laid out the rationale for the build-up at the end of July. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the package would help "bolster forces of moderation and support a broader strategy to counter the negative influences of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran."

Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said some 150 Democratic and Republican members of Congress out of 535 had signed a letter he wrote voicing concern about JDAMs for Saudi Arabia, which remains in a formal state of war with Israel.

"The administration would be wise to listen to the voices of several prominent committee chairs, as well as ranking Republicans," Kirk said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Israel and the Bush administration have agreed to disagree on the wisdom of selling JDAMs to Saudi Arabia, said Peter Rodman, who worked on the issue before retiring as an assistant secretary of defense earlier this year.

"But they're not going to fight against the administration" over the JDAMs, Rodman, now at the private Brookings Institution, said in a telephone interview.

"All of us are conscious of the growing strategic threat from Iran," he said of Israel, the United States and the Gulf Arab states.