National Security

Pesky Questions

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | November 15, 2010 | +

Close to 200 lawmakers have written to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking questions about the pending $60 billion sale of F-15 jet fighters and other weapons to Saudi Arabia. They want to know the “rationale for a sale of such magnitude” and what might happen to the arms “in the event of political change in Saudi Arabia.”

A Saudi F-15 / DoD photo

While Israel has quietly complained about the package, it hasn’t objected because of promises made that Washington will ensure Israel keeps its “QMI” — qualitative military edge, in diplo-speak — no matter what we sell to the kingdom. Arming both sides helps clarify what a big chunk of the Saudi deal is about, even if the letter is mute on the point: U.S. jobs.

Related Topics: arms sales, israel, saudi arabia, National Security

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  • Cliff

    They want to know the “rationale for a sale of such magnitude”
    .
    They should have directed their letters to the Wu Tang Clan:
    .
    Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M./Get the money; dollar, dollar bill, y’all.

  • fhmadvocat

    These 200 congresspeople need to get a clue! This is about Iran! Don’t these people pay attention? Selling the planes is good for the U.S. economy, and the real enemy of Saudi Arabia is not a Jewish enclave of 7 million people in a place with no oil, it is the Shiite kingdom with, I believe, some 60 million people who have been exporting an (Shiite) Islamic Revolution for the past 30 years. Don’t forget, 30% of Saudi Arabia is Shiite and they live over most of the patches of oil. So the arms sale is about jobs in the U.S.A. and keeping Iran in check.

  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    Arming both sides helps clarify what a big chunk of the Saudi deal is about, even if the letter is mute on the point: U.S. jobs.
    -
    That contradicts GOP theology, though, doesn’t it? Government spending can’t create jobs.
    -
    fhmadvocat is right about the larger calculus here, I think, which is rather depressing. We had to arm the Shah, then we had to arm Saddam against the Ayatollah, while secretly selling arms to Iran anyway, then we had to invade Saddam’s Iraq for some reason & transform Iraq into an ally of Iran. Now we have to sell arms to Saudi Arabia to ward off Iranian influence. What could possibly go wrong!
    -
    Also, they hate us for our freedoms.

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    Howabout not “jobs” but salaries for defense company executives and increased stock prices for their shareholders. Building weapons and sending them overseas is pretty much the worst job creation mechanism you can think of.
    .
    Building that smart grid we were promised, or improving commuter rail, or fixing the collapsing bridges across the country, or modernizing our international air ports to be more like Munich and less like Cairo or, my favorite, pulling fiber to every post office in the US, and setting up wireless service all would create more jobs immediately, and would provided the foundation for more jobs in the future.
    .
    It’s a little appalling that the media just repeats these job creation claims as policy objectives. They may be what Members of Congress like to put in their newsletters, but it is not really about jobs.

  • http://www.inworldstudios.com jayackroyd

    Elvis–
    .
    You mean Saudi government spending, right? The US doesn’t buy these weapons. It approves the purchase of these weapons from the contractors.

  • Ivy_B

    OK that seals it. I want to elect Jay Ackroyd Executive in Charge of the Congress and the President so they will do what he says.

  • michaelfury
  • http://elvisberg.wordpress.com Elvis Elvisberg

    Right, I don’t see why that would be different. “Government spending can’t create jobs,” that is the line, isn’t it? This is spending by a government, therefore it cannot create jobs.

  • dollared

    Just a quick note to thank you, Mark, for using the word “mute” properly.

    The rest of my comments have been mooted by Speaker JayAkroyd’s excellent post.

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