Military Contractors Glad As Trump Dismisses CIA Report On Khashoggi Killing

[babylonsister]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/charlestiefer/2018/11/22/military-contractors-glad-as-trump-dismisses-cia-report-on-khashoggi-killing/?fbclid=IwAR2NSasSNU_B2WUh0NWUI4WEdr4Fv9zOGaQYX0CjWvOiROW-DXBuCQt0DlM#33fe1d471f97

Nov 22, 2018, 12:23pm
Military Contractors Glad As Trump Dismisses CIA Report On Khashoggi Killing
Charles Tiefer
I cover government contracting, the Pentagon and Congress.

snip//

In his statements, Trump makes some loose and exaggerated generalizations about how America needed to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. What warrants attention is the stake of the military supply industry and of individual military contractors in kowtowing to the Saudis. A Washington Post article today lays this out.

Even before this incident, efforts were building in the Congress for restricting arms sales to the Saudis. Bipartisan support for such restrictions built to respond to Saudi brutality in its war in Yemen and a desire grew to express vigorous American opposition to the war. Human rights groups support action on this; the military lobby opposes it.

In August, a Saudi bomb killed more than 50 people, including at least 40 children, on a school-bus field trip. The bomb was manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The Saudi air strikes in Yemen have implicated the American supplying of munitions with the terrible cost in civilian casualties. So, the Yemen war’s awful profile in death and destruction direct world criticism at the United States.

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The defense industry can openly make campaign contributions, and deploy a large lobby, in support of the Saudis. In reality, the stakes for American industry in military sales are far more in terms of profits, this being highly profitable selling, than in terms of jobs, this being low job-intensity work. Still, the military industry lobby can cloak itself as job-oriented, as Trump does.

[Pantagruel]

1. SA is locked into U.S. arms

Reality is SA is locked into U.S. arms, too late to switch without discarding almost all their current systems for which we sell the replacement parts and ammunition. Contrary to the Tangerine traitor's comments, we have the leverage.