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About those F-15s...
National security analysts will immediately note the ways in which the massive U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia is part of the administration's strategy to reassure Gulf allies of a continued U.S. commitment to the region as the nation shifts its focus to Asia while dealing with the Iranian nuclear weapons program. This is also, though, about U.S. jobs. Boeing* had been manufacturing F-15s on its St. Louis assembly line for the past few years without a firm assurance those aircraft would ever be sold. Cancelling the deal with Saudi Arabia would have been a tremendous blow to both Boeing and the people of St. Louis. I am not among those who argue we should keep U.S. defense spending high in order to support the U.S. economy, but in this case, I think it is naive to assume U.S. domestic politics did not play at least a small role in this sale. I'm sure the congressional delegation of Missouri, for example, is enjoying a late Christmas present today.
Note: the president barely lost Missouri in 2008.
*Continuing a tradition of transparency on the blog and at CNAS in general, I should note that Boeing was a corporate sponsor of CNAS in 2011. A full list of CNAS donors can be found here. (I do not understand why all think tanks do not similarly publish a list of their donors so that consumers of their products can make more informed judgments.)
In the event that this “sale”
In the event that this “sale” is truly a sale vs. a “foreign military equipment gift”, and considering the attendant operations and maintenance benefits to Boeing and their subcontractors I fail to see why this is a bad thing for the US. We are trying to push Europe to spend more on their own defense, why is it not also productive for Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Indonesia to do the same.
It's probably worth noting
It's probably worth noting that this keeps the F-15 line warm in case something (else) unfortunate happens to the F-35 program.
A lot of us would like to see
A lot of us would like to see a lot less of these arms sales: pumping weapons into dangerous parts of the world, making war more likely, and draining off public monies in those countries that could better go to schools, hospitals, infrastructure, etc.
Just to be uber-blunt about it, Is this really what Jesus would want? If he were to look at this deal and others like it, would he say, "Yup! That's exactly what I intended! Carry on, guys, and God bless America!"? It's difficult to think so.
But, if you had it in your power to cancel this deal, would you? How many families does that $30 billion support? How many mortgages are paid from it? How many kids going to college on it? How many organic grocers and fair-trade importers get some of that money? Auto-dealers? Local restaurants? Mechanics? Book stores? How much of it ends up as local taxes, supporting Missouri's public schools and police and hospitals?
If you had it in your power to just flip a switch, cancelling arms sales such as that--but also cancelling all the income generated--would you?
Charlieford on December 30,
Charlieford on December 30, 2011 - 10:57am
Do they teach that at Harvard?
I wish it were that simple. If you really want a wake up call you should speak to the people that work in the US prison system. Not the admin people with masters and doctors degrees, the people that have to touch the prison population. People's aggressive behavior is getting worse not better.
It is not about guns, it is about the politics of greed and power.
Nancy Pelosi has over a $2000/month bottle water habit from the listing of her operational expenses, she flies jets constantly. All of that behavior uses fossil fuels( that is were a lot of plastics come from), her carbon foot print has to be the size of Godzilla's. Yet she is a switch flipper on global warming. Her use of fossil fuel adds to a collective demand that give the Saudis enough money to buy arms, the power of that wealth creates the struggle.
Hillary Clinton, another Harvard grad, has been flipping switches all her life. Not only is her carbon foot print larger than that of Pelosi's she indirectly killed more people by flipping the switch on Libya than Gaddafi would have in his dreams. Both Clintons have been working that arms control switch all their lives, it is about wore out. Now we have people in Southern Egypt buying Libyan 12.5mm anti-aircraft guns so they will have them just in case. It is like Hillary suddenly got all NRA. That poor judgement in Libya will never touch her. I saw a NYT times article talking about tracing Belgium arms sales into Libya and blaming the manufacturer for selling guns to Libya. There was hardly a mention of condemnation of the more dangerous stuff was let loose on the region by the ripple effect of the Hillary induced NFZ.
Both Pelosi and Clinton are the first to throw stones.
If it were that easy, I would be happy to flip the switch with you.
Frist we just have to convince the people in Congress not to fly home for the weekends. If the US did not need ME oil, then SA would not need arms in the first place. Behavior change starts at home. Hillary has her daughter off on a good start, a politically managed six figure salary and lifestyle. It is about what we teach our children that betrays us.
Manufacture locally, Buy the Made in America label. (AKA..use less oil, more US treasure for social programs ).
BTW....The ME does not need schools, Americans buy enough $100/barrel oil that the ME can send their children to University in America. Schools that our American parent's parents built for their children.
How is the teaching of American youth doing these days? What did they get for Christmas? What are their values? What is the divorce rate? How is the American family?
It really starts at home. Where is Dad?
All these actions have hidden
All these actions have hidden motives and wishes of politicians. And ordinary people seejust the head of the iceberg of all this.
Regards,
Fred from iphone development company
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