My reaction on reading Jack Detsch’s article at Al Monitor on U. S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia:
The United States sold more than $650 million in weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the Yemen war expanded last year, according to a study released Thursday.
The Washington-based Security Assistance Monitor said the weapons went to Saudi Arabia and the UAE through the State Department’s Direct Commercial Sales program, which allows American arms-makers to sell directly to foreign customers.
US weapons contractors reportedly sold $610 million in precision-guided bombs and small arms ammunition to the Saudis, and another $48.6 million in M-4 and M-16 automatic rifles and spare parts to the Emiratis. Congress receives detailed readouts of direct US commercial weapons sales, but only cursory data is made public.
Under the program, the UAE spent nearly $60 million for small arms in 2016, while Saudi Arabia purchased about $11 million worth of machine guns.
was why? Saudi Arabia’s illegal, immoral war against Yemen does not promote American interests in the region. Yemen does not pose a threat to us; it doesn’t pose a threat to Saudi Arabia. The only explanation I could come up with is for the money which in turn reminded me of Lenin’s wisecrack about capitalists and rope.
The Saudis are waging war against Yemen; they have fomented the civil war in Syria and continue to support it. They have funded madrassas all over the world that promote their vile, reactionary, anti-modern version of Islam. They are not our friends. Why do we keep supporting them?
Yup, it’s the money. Why do we support them? Certain factions in our have decided that Iran is our real enemy. They like to trot out the claim that Iran is the number one state supporter of terrorism in the world. Nevermind that the terrorists coming here to kill largely have a Saudi connection, or as u pointed out it is the Saudis paying to spread fundamentalism.
Stteve
Back in the day, we sold the Shah anything he wanted, because we wanted an ally in the region strong enough to dominate it. And we didn’t care what else he did. When the revolution came, we needed another proxy to dominate the Gulf, and the Saudis were the only viable candidate.
It should also be noted that Saudis killing Yemenis or the Shah killing students is cheaper that having the US Army and Marines do it.
It’s all about maintaining our world empire. As our relative power declines, this gets harder and harder to do. But, for now we’re on top and riding hard.
Isn’t it something about The Saudis selling oil in U.S. dollars rather than, say, Yuan ?