U.S. to announce biggest arms sale in history today

[Enrique]

Source: Financial Times

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1c68d10e-dbd4-11df-af09-00144feabdc0.html

The US is due to announce on Wednesday an arms sale to Saudi Arabia that could total more than $60bn, the biggest such transaction in history.

The formal congressional notification by the Obama administration comes after weeks of consultations with the US Congress and with Israel. The deal’s champions say it would boost regional defences against Iran and provide the US manufacturing industry with thousands of jobs.

The transaction would involve providing or refurbishing some 150 F-15 fighter jets as well as selling Saudi Arabia dozens of Black Hawk and Apache helicopters, and, probably at a later date, naval and missile defence assets.

It is not considered likely to be held up by Congress, in spite of concern among some representatives about the long-term impact of arming Saudi Arabia to such an extent.

(...)

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1c68d10e-dbd4-11df-af09-00144feabdc0.html

[ixion]

1. The MIC must be giddy... misison accomplished

:puke:

[WCGreen]

2. It would be hard for terrorists to use these weapons....

However, if their is a problem internally, a more belligerent state could emerge and so could pose a prob em in one of the most heavily armed areas in the world...

[ensho]

3. so the pentagon get this money? and the pentagon gives it to the Gvt.?

because its really OUR money, don't you see.

[Skink]

4. The United states of America Arms brokers.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. doh.

[thereismore]

6. Well, that should help our trade deficit some! Now if we only could sell to Iran as well. nt

[slackmaster]

7. On our watch, folks.

:nuke:

[Ticonderoga]

8. Sure let's arm the country

who sent 19 of it's jihadists to attack the W.T.C. . Endless Wars.

[loudsue]

10. EXACTLY what I was thinking. The cover up of Saudi Arabia's involvement in 9/11 is one of the

most hideous acts of the oil/defense culture in this country I've ever seen. The saudi's fucking OWN this country. All the oil countries do.

[formercia]

9. It gives the Saudi Princes some toys to play with.

If the Iranians had the equivalent weapons, they would whup their asses.

[liberation]

11. LOL. This is the stuff I love about America...

... so the country which had probably the least to do with 9/11 in the area gets invaded and bombed back to the stone age. And the country who had the most to do with the biggest terrorist attack on American soil gets our largest transfer of military equipment in history.

I am starting to wonder if we're the first "surreal" empire ever?

[ensho]

12. you are on to something with "surreal empire"

seems to fit

[Dreamer Tatum]

13. Sold by a POTUS who claimed to have been against the wars. nt

[maxsolomon]

19. the POTUS takes control of the ship of state

he can turn it, slowly, but he can't stop it's forward momentum on a dime - which is what 22 months is, in policy terms.

we are the planet's largest arms manufactureres and suppliers. arms sales to SA have been US policy for decades. we still consider them an ally in the ME.

are you suggesting that Obama should cut them off, while continuing to supply other nations, say, Israel? or are you suggesting that Obama end all US sales of arms, and thereby put the defense industry out of work?

i'm for the latter, but i don't think that would happen even if Noam Chomsky were POTUS.

[Dreamer Tatum]

23. Yeah, he's been so vocal about not selling arms.

It's in every speech.

:eyes:

[Enrique]

25. and then everyone freaks out over the "Ground Zero Mosque"

:crazy:

[global1]

14. How Long Before This Comes Back To Bite Us In The Ass?......nt

[displacedvermoter]

15. And a Nobel Peace Prize Winner in the Whitehouse

don't ya know!

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. The United States of Kafka

[ProudDad]

22. Yeah, Right!

That's when Barr -- uh, Barack Hussein Obama completely lost me!

The fucker had the chutzpa to do what even Henry Kissinger wouldn't have done; justify a war while picking up the Nobel Peace Prize!

I listened to his mealy mouthed speech live and nearly drove off the road!

Tom Lehrer commented that awarding the peace prize to Henry Kissinger made political satire obsolete. What Obama did by pissing on it, made the Peace Prize obsolete...

Note that this year they "awarded" it to someone who can't show up and piss on it again! Ha-ha-ha-ha :rofl:

[AlphaCentauri]

17. Just don't let the princess to use them against his servants

?MOD=AJPERES

[defendandprotect]

18. What ... ? Bush didn't give them atomic weapons ... ???

[ProudDad]

20. "Washington Rules" rule

The full history of this insanity is revealed in Andrew Bacevich's book: "Washington Rules"...

The USAmerikan Empire and the permanent war economy is NOT an accident!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-isenberg/washington-rules-and-pmc_b_669442.html

[ProudDad]

21. Oil for your hummer is fucking EXPENSIVE! (n/t)

[Pavulon]

24. And Iran cant even get russia to deliver some S-300's

bet they are loving this.

[classysassy]

26. My country consulted Israel

but they forgot to inform me,as a citizen I demand to be consulted when we sell arms to a foreign nation.I am sure it was just a small over sight or was it a big slight?

[jmowreader]

27. They'll need more in three years

The Saudi Army is kind of a rich boy's club. It's full of the perfumed princes of Saudi royalty who join because, let's face it, going out and using military equipment is FUN! (Well, it's not so much fun when there's a war going on, but going four-wheeling in Hummers or flying around in Blackhawks IS a lot of fun.) And the Saudis buy the funnest military equipment there is: what other country would buy Lamborghini LM-1 four-wheel-drive trucks, which are powered by the same V-12 engine that drives the Countach, as their field cars? OTOH, living in the motor pool for weeks on end fixing what you broke last time you went downrange isn't fun at all, so they get a bunch of poor people to do all the maintenance. Being that the poor Saudis have no love for the rich ones, you can well imagine how the maintenance is carried out. Add to that the fact Saudi Arabia is the last place in the world you want to skimp on your maintenance and you can see Saudi Arabia's tactical equipment wears out very fast.