October 21, 2010
The Wisdom Fund

$60 Billion U.S. Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia

War 'racket' sustains military-industrial complex

by Enver Masud

The Defense Department has notified Congress that it wants to sell $60 billion worth of advanced aircraft and weapons to Saudi Arabia.

The deal to be completed over five to 10 years, according to the Washington Post, "includes 84 new F-15 fighter jets and upgrades to 70 more F-15s that the Saudis already have, as well as three types of helicopters: 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds. Saudi Arabia would also get versions of a satellite-guided 'smart bomb' system, plus anti-ship and anti-radar missiles."

The question is, "Is this deal about defending Saudi Arabia or about sustaining the U.S. military-industrial complex?"

Saudi Arabia, with annual military spending of $31 billion, is #8 in military expenditure rankings -- just ahead of Russia which is #9, and Iran which is #21 with spending of $6.1 billion.

"The Saudi sale is part of a wider arms build-up in the Middle East, which the US depicts as important to keeping Iran in check", reports the Financial Times.

When was the last time that Iran attacked another state?

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"'War Is A Racket'," The Wisdom Fund, September 11, 2001

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, "The Enormous Cost of War," Nation, August 17, 2007

[ . . . the Strategic Foresight Group in India . . . calculates that conflict in the area over the last 20 years has cost the nations and people of the region 12 trillion U.S. dollars.--Rick Rozoff, "Middle East loses Trillions as U.S. strikes record Arms Deals," mediamonitors.net, September 3, 2010]

"The Arms Sales Monitoring Project," Federation of American Scientists