I can't believe what I heard and read today about President Bush's trip to the middle east. Read the following from the Jerusalem Post: "Coinciding with Bush's trip, the Bush administration in Washington notified Congress on Monday that it would offer Saudi Arabia the chance to buy sophisticated Joint Direct Attack Munitions - or "smart bomb" - technology and related equipment, the State Department said. The administration envisions the transfer of 900 of the precision-guided bomb kits, worth US$123 million, that would give the kingdom's armed forces highly accurate targeting abilities.
The proposed deal follows notification of five other packages to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, bringing to US$11.5 billion the amount of advanced US weaponry, including Patriot missiles, that the administration has announced it will provide to friendly Arab nations, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Administration officials say the total amount of eventual sales as part of the Gulf Security Dialogue is estimated at $20 billion, a figure subject to actual purchases.
The arms packages are an important part of the US strategy to bolster the defenses of oil-producing Gulf nations, such as Saudi Arabia, against threats from Iran. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, which have majority Sunni Muslim populations, harbor deep suspicions about Shiite Iran's apparent designs to establish itself as a major power.
Congress already has been briefed on all the packages, which also include the sale of the navy's Littoral Combat system. Lawmakers mostly see the deals as critical to maintaining relations with war-on-terror allies. Some are opposed to the JDAMs portion out of concern that it gives Saudi Arabia the ability to attack Israel, but are unlikely to muster the two-thirds majority needed, within an allowed 30-day period, to block the sales."(italics added by the blog author) And this from the New York Times: "President Bush on Tuesday urged Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC to consider the strain the high cost of oil was having on the American economy, addressing an issue that has begun to color the last year of his presidency and dominate the presidential election campaign." What the hell is that all about. Why are we in bed with Saudi Arabia? Is it to get control over oil? Is it to get Saudi Arabia to attack Iran? (the U.S. might need an ally when it attacks Iran, cause, unfortunately, that is most likely going to happen at the rate we are going) Saudi Arabia is not our ally. They have never fought a common enemy of ours. 15 of the terrorists in the 9/11 attack were Saudis, the attack was funded by Saudi money, many of the attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq are wrought by Saudis, not to mention they bailed out Citi Group financially, and have billions of dollars of investments in U.S. businesses. They own us. How can we just let this stuff happen? Granted I don't know all the facts regarding our connection with Saudi Arabia (please email with any insights, ideas, or facts) but I'm no dummy and I don't think that our dealings with them are very sound. I am not trying to say that all Saudis are evil, but we need to avoid strong ties. Trade with everyone and avoid strong alliances with any country. I feel like everything is just building up so that the U.S. can take over the entire middle east. What are we doing people!?
P.S. This entry was off the cuff and any specifics of facts will be investigated further this week and emails are appreciated.
(we need a revolution.)
9 comments:
Here's an article about Saudi involvement in the Iraq war by Ned Parker in the LA times:
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimesA98.html
crazy...
hey man, just a little insight to why we have to kiss saudi arabia's oily back side:
ever since the early 1970s (around when the ties between our countries gold at fort knox and the dollar were done away with)the united states has had a huge economic crutch from the oil industry in one way: every country in the world had to, and still has to, buy oil in US dollars. The money brought into our nation from the exchange of foreign currency for US dollars pretty much kept our nation on top economically in the late 70s when oil prices went from around 12 dollars a barrel to around 60 dollars; and it still is a huge factor in our economy. Recently countries like Iran and Iraq have threatened to begin selling oil for euros instead of dollars. Saudi arabia had also whispered a few things to that effect. That is a scary prospect; especially considering the fact that the dollar is way behind the euro (and even the freaking canadian dollar) right now. Saudi arabia is pretty much the oil pimp of the world, but they have always depended on us for security and Bush is just trying to strong arm them into continued use of the dollar in oil trade so that are US dollar doesn't dive even lower; and so we dont lose the billions of dollar that we get each year from currency exchange. Do I think we should hand smart bombs over to ANY country in the middle east? About as much as I think people should continue to put salt on watermelon(barf-puke); but I do understand his rational for doing so....I just wish we had a president who could think of something other than military when negotiating with foreign countries.
p.s.- i be diggin da blog. dale por adelante
“Last year the former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia told a committee of the US Congress: 'One of the major things the Saudis have historically done, in part out of friendship with the United States, is to insist that oil continues to be priced in dollars. Therefore, the US Treasury can print money and buy oil, which is an advantage no other country has. With the emergence of other currencies and with strains in the relationship, I wonder whether there will not again be, as there have been in the past, people in Saudi Arabia who raise the question of why they should be so kind to the United States.' ”
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,900867,00.html
How convenient that we got rid of what little we had left of the gold standard at the same time the dollar was established as the oil trade standard currency. Suddenly we could freely print money and have all the oil we want. [Federal Reserve] – [gold standard] + [dollar oil standard] = oil on demand. (If I’m gonna be a conspiracy theorist it’s comforting to know that at least someone like the former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia is too.) Having this perspective makes the argument that the Iraq war was largely about Iraq’s abandonment of the dollar as their currency for oil trade all too credible. First Iraq then Iran, who’s next? As Brad suggests, some are saying that the Saudis (and other nations) are now leaning that direction (http://www.currencytrading.net/2007/7-countries-considering-abandoning-the-us-dollar-and-what-it-means/) while others suggest the Saudi’s are defending use of the dollar despite countries like Iran and Venezuela wanting to trash it (http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/19/news/international/oil_opec/index.htm?postversion=2007112006).
I have a little trouble believing that the Saudis would be planning to abandon the dollar because of all the US – Saudi ties that exist but even if they were, a few billion dollars of weapons seems to be a pour incentive for the Saudis to keep using the dollar if it was their plan to abandon it. I think the sale might have more to do with dealing with Iran, a country who openly wants to abandon the dollar and has no good ties with the US whatsoever. As Bush travels the Middle East proclaiming world peace in an area of the world where he has started two wars and looks to be starting another one soon, he is simultaneously carrying out business transactions of military weapons. Equipping Saudi Arabia, Israel, or any other Middle Eastern ally with weapons is simply expanding our own military power and capabilities in the area. It appears that Bush is simply using the peace symbol as a crosshair for Ahmadinejad’s forehead and is getting as many Middle Eastern countries to jump on as possible.
…Impeach Bush.
just wanted to clarify my previous post with a little history behind what many historians refer to as the "Dollar Regime" I think eric might have misinterpteted my purpose which was to respond to Chase's question as to why we are even in this situation with Saudi Arabia...not to support bush's assanine plan to sell bombs. so..a little history:
The dollar regime began in 73 when Nixon presided over the U.S., and it refers to the events that have made the world dependent on US dollars to purchase oil. Nixon suspended the gold ties to the dollar which allowed the value of the dollar to float. At this time the US was backing Israel in the Yom Kippur war and in an attempt to retaliate against the US for supporting Israel OPEC started an oil embargo(a couple of years after the gold ties had been done away with…the tie wasn’t broken due to high oil prices…they were still fairly low in ‘73.) This embargo quadrupled the price of oil, which had only mildly fluctuated in recent years.
This embargo resulted in a shortage of oil in industrialized nations, and as a result unemployment rose greatly. In 1980 Saadam Hussein invaded Iran and oil prices doubled. During this time Reagan began to engage in deficit spending to keep the American economy afloat with most of the money being put towards modernizing the military. Oil prices remained high until 1986 when the price of oil slumped due to over production. This left the oil producing countries heavily in debt due to the amount of money they had borrowed for developing their countries in hopes of oil prices remaining high.
The U.S. received somewhat of a “free-ride” from the oil prices due to the money they were making by selling dollars to other countries so that those countries would be able to buy oil. This happened for a few reasons. The first reason is that the US was, and still is, acting as a security force for many of the world’s countries (including Saudi Arabia) which saved them money. In a sense, these countries allowed oil prices to remain in dollars so they did not lose the free security that the US provided them which allowed them to develop other sections of their society(i.e., socialized healthcare in most of Europe). The US was able to maintain their position as a global security force largely because of the afore mentioned upgrades of the US military done by Reagan. The second reason is that the Soviet Union, one of the few nations not relying on the US for security, was inadequate in their attempts to change the dollar regime. Due to the enormous debt they had incurred when oil prices dropped the Soviet Union was unable to finance a move from a central command to a market nation and from 89-91 the Soviet Union began to collapse due to population problems in countries like Hungary and checkoslovakia.
Historically the dollar regime has kept the US in a financial position of power through their sell of the dollar. The US didn’t do away with the gold standard so they could buy oil…it was still inexpensive when the gold ties where done away with and it had always been sold in dollars. There is no official contract or law which states that oil must be purchased in US dollars; it is simply the result of a series of historical events (many of which are just as crooked as bush’s potentially forthcoming sell of bombs to Saudi Arabia i.e., backing Israel in the Yom Kippur war). Is bush selling bombs to Saudi Arabia so that they will lay the smackdown on Iran? Probably, bush doesn’t want Iran to sell oil in anything but dollars; and providing Saudi with some weapons is a pretty good way to strongarm Iran into cooperation while re-inforcing our desire of friendship with Saudi Arabia( eric’s beginning citation plainly states that the main reason that Saudi still sells oil in dollars is out of friendship)…..that was my point. Do I agree with it? In no way, shape, or form. I am simply responding to Chase’s query of insight on why we are in bed with Saudi Arabia. Like chase said…I don’t think it is a good rationalization, but I think it is a realization of whats happening. I don’t believe that war is the answer to anything (unless, maybe, someone invades us soil and we need to kick them back to their own country…which I don’t ever see happening.) For more info on the history of the “dollar regime” I would direct anyone to scholarly journals written by Dr. Peter VonSivers, director of the Middle Eastern Center and Middle Eastern Studies at the U of U. Most of the above information originated from lectures given by VonSivers who himself would love to impeach Bush. To end I just want to reiterate that I don’t think this information rationalizes bush’s actions…it is a simple realization of some (not all) of the motive behind bush’s latest and greatest.
Cool. Thanks a lot for the info Brad. I'm pretty new to this issue (and to a lot of others) and could use all the info I could get. By the way, I like refering to news articles just because it's interesting to see that even our media takes a peek into these things once in a blue moon but I understand the mainstream media is not a good source if you really want to get into these things. I'll definately have to check out VonSivers' lectures.
sup chase, Im diggin the blog. Yeah many people think that Saudi Arabia is as much a threat as Iran, good thing theyll have plenty of weapons to bust our balls, should things go sour.
May I humbly suggest that Iran is not a threat??? At least not anything near what they are portrayed as. They also got us to think that Iraq was a threat. Let's not make the same mistake twice... last time it cost hundreds of thousands of lives... and counting.
Hi Chase Dee!
I found your blog through your sis's. Just wanted to say Hi...hope all is well!
Cami(prows)
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