Arming-geddon

Reuters:

The Bush administration is preparing a package of arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states that could be worth some $20 billion over the next 10 years, a senior U.S. defense official said on Saturday.
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The United States has sought to allay Israeli concerns about the forthcoming package. The senior U.S. defense official said Washington was working on a military assistance deal for Israel expected to top $30 billion during the next decade, a significant increase on current levels.
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The package would cover other U.S. allies in the Gulf, the official said. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates are expected to benefit, the Times and Post said.
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The United States also is preparing a package of military assistance worth some $13 billion in the next decade for Egypt, another U.S. ally in the Middle East, a senior State Department official said.

Egypt--home of Mohammed Atta. Saudi Arabia--birthplace of 16 of Atta's alleged 9/11 accomplices, as well as Osama bin Laden. Both countries brutal repressors of their people, as are most of the other countries on the weapons list. In fact, counting Israel's brutal rule of Palestine and the US's brutal misrule of Iraq and Afghanistan, a huge percentage of the Muslim world is oppressed by the un-elected leaders of these countries. Why, it's practically a caliphate!

The chances that these weapons will someday (probably soon) be used against each other are great. That some will be used against Americans is also quite high. None of this matters to our Daddy Warbucks government, and it hasn't for decades. We armed Iran and Iraq during their war in the 1980's (begun by Saddam largely at US urging). We arm long-time nuclear enemies India and Pakistan. Like free trade but even worse, perpetual war is good for the wealthy few running the world, and terrible for everyone else.