How Many Of You Understand The Middle East / Arms Sales To Saudi Arabia and Others ?

Question

After reading a question designed to place fault with the Bush Administration , I just had to post this .
Arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries has been done for decades by BOTH parties . And BOTH parties currently agree on this one too .
The reason why we do it is not all that difficult to understand . We do it to stabilize the Middle East especially when 1 or 2 countries have acquired such a military force that they become a threat to all of the others . We 'even-out' the playing field much like during the cold war when the Soviet Union had many nuclear missiles and we had many as well . It's the 'Mutually Assured Destruction' deterrent . And , MAD is/was very effective . Neither the U.S. nor the Soviet Union would use nukes knowing full-well the other would retaliate and no one would win .
Calling this a failed 'Bush' policy is completely and factually incorrect .

Hatred is a disease that blocks rational thought .
How many of you are afflicted with this?

ADD -- How many of you GREENIES would like to see the oil fields all over the Middle East on FIRE and adding decades worth of carbon to our atmosphere ?

A Person - You're right on with that . I was running out of space , but wanted to include how arms sales also even out the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis . Good catch .

JGF - Nope , I wasn't referring to yours . I was referring to another one that looked like it was posted by a kid. . . .and then as a result of fomenting hatred , he got others to agree when they had no idea of what they were talking about .

So-Crates - (smile) Disarming the world is a physical and literal impossibility . That's one of those 'liberal dreams' that is not based upon reality . Besides , as soon as a couple countries were to even try , bad countries(yes liberals there are bad people) would invade good countries . Nice dream though . We'll be waiting for you in the Republican Party when you awaken from your dream .

Answer 1

I agree with you up to the point of "even out". Israel is by far more superior with all the military might combined of the Arabs X 100. Israel destroys the infrastructure of Lebanon and nobody can say a word about it including the use of cluster bombs. AIPAC is more powerful than our own government. Noteworthy, that ISRAEL got another 30 Billion in promises for Hardware by the Bush Administration. Not only GWB but historically all Presidents have to compensate and make AIPAC happy when a deal is made with the Arabs.

Answer 2

I do not see the problem with arming nations that have been consistently aligned against our enemy in the region, Iran. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE are sworn enemies of the Iranians and we should be more than willing to arm them to counter Iranian influence in the region.

Answer 3

I see something wrong with selling arms to that country where children are literally teached to hate the West and America in general.where the government chooses to appease the fundamentalists and would even be willing to(and I believe they do) hide Bin Laden if it meant they kept power.
I'm questioning America's foreign policy of both parties on this point.

Answer 4

So by your arguement it's OK for the U.S. to supply SUNNI states while condemning and invading Shia states!?!?!

How is that balancing anything?

So Shia Muslims are crazy whackjobs who can't be trusted with nuclear technology but their Sunni Muslim counterparts are rational U.S.peace loving Muslims!?!?!?!

OK which was Osama???

I believe that is SUNNI!!!

Most of his followers are Sunni!

No one should have nuclear technology!!

And P.S. no one wants the oil in the Middle East burning into the air.
But how about we pay a fair market price for it like we do with other supplying nations?

Answer 5

If you want to know if this is a good idea, remember this....

Who do you think provided Saddam with weapons so he could get and stay in power?

What happens is we pick some pawn to put in power, thinking we can control them. Once they are in power they do what they want including using our own weapons against us.

It has not worked in the past and it will not work in the future!

Rumsfeld himself was involved in arming Saddam!

Read the links before responding!

Just Don't Do IT!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

I wouldn't claim to understand it beyond Eisenhower's warnings about the military-industrial complex (which he helped to fuel, of course). Disarming the world would work as well as arming it, but no one would make any money that way.

Answer 7

The problem with is we're selling arms to a country that is suppilying cash and perhaps arms to Sunni insurgents in Iraq who are killing American soldiers,which wasn't happening before Dubya's administration.
Yeah,Con,that's a good idea.

You people are pathetic.

Answer 8

Thank you. I would add.

How would it look if we continue to offer the same types of weapons to Israel and not offer some them to Muslim nations?

Would re-enforce America is pro-Israel and anti-Middle East. Governments, Mullahs and Clerics would have a field day with this if we did not make the offer. Making it impossible to have any kind of relevance in any Mid-East peace process.

Answer 9

I do, I do!!! Me, me, me!!!!

Most people don't even realize how many Saudis are trained right here on our military bases and have been for a number of years. Yes, even during the Clinton administration. :)

Answer 10

None of what you said makes it right. I never have, and never will understand how providing weapons will stabilize anything.