Condi Pitches $20-Billion Mideast Arms Deal
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday revealed details of an extensive arms package totaling $20 billion for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other nearby countries -- along with a $30-billion 10-year plan for Israel -- with the purported aim of shoring up Middle Eastern states against the potential regional threat posed by Iran.Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday revealed details of an extensive arms package totaling $20 billion for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other nearby countries — along with a $30-billion 10-year plan for Israel — with the purported aim of shoring up Middle Eastern states against the potential regional threat posed by Iran.
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The proposed package of advanced weaponry for Saudi Arabia, which includes improved satellite-guided bombs, upgrades for its fighter jets and new naval vessels, had made Israel and some of its supporters in Congress nervous. Indeed, even before the administration had announced the package, two Congressmen, Anthony D. Weiner and Jerrold Nadler, both Democrats of New York, held a news conference outside the Saudi Consulate in Manhattan to announce a legislative proposal to block the planned arms sale.
Bush Administration officials said the arms sales are meant in part to act as a bulwark against Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East.
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The most recent manifestation of the urge to engage in an “arms race” will no doubt create more insecurity in an already unstable world.
A deep-seated denial about the colonial ideology undergirding gun rights in the U.S. has hampered the left's approach to arms control.
Since at least 2001, the Saudis and Israelis have successfully reframed American policy in the Greater Middle East, and the results have been disastrous.
The president's arms sales are meant to promote pork-barrel politics, while pumping up the profits of U.S. weapons manufacturers. As for human rights or human lives, who cares?
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