US officials report that major US arms makers like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are expressing concern that the backlash against Saudi Arabia, the largest purchaser of such arms, over the disappearance and apparent death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi will end up costing them some very lucrative arms deals.
Saudi war crimes in Yemen had already led to repeated pushes in Congress to limit US arms sales, and at times, some sales were delayed by this. The addition of the Khashoggi affair has raised the possibility of the US cutting arms sales to them outright.
President Trump has argued against this course of action, saying it isn’t worth losing $110 billion in sales over one journalist who isn’t even a US citizen. Congress, however, may have other ideas.
Congress has the power to block any foreign military sales, and there is bipartisan support for that idea. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) even cautioned contractors not to push for any new deals with the Saudis right now, saying no approval votes could happen for awhile.
So Trump won’t sacrifice US jobs with sanctions but expects other countries to damage their economies by complying with his illegal, flawed and unnecessary sanctions on Iran. Totally absurd and crazy especially when you look at Pompeo who is demented by Iran and has little else to offer.
Perhaps even crazier the USA public who put up with this *****,
What does Israel want? Would love to see the MIC take on the Israel Lobby for once to see who the number one power is in our Congress.
Why would they take on their best friends? You seem to think they are playing on different sides of this game. They are absolutely not.
If the MIC wants to sell lots of weapons to the Saudis or other Muslim majority nations and Israel opposes the sale, then, for once, they would be on different sides of an argument.
Interestingly, the first time I questioned the US-Israel relationship was over Israel opposing such a sale.
It was in the early 1980s. I was still in high school. The Reagan administration announced its intention to sell AWACS aircraft to Saudi Arabia. I saw Menachem Begin on TV vowing that Israel would “not allow” the sale. My reaction was “who the hell is this guy that he thinks he gets to ‘allow’ or ‘not allow’ it?”
Israel actually supports US weapons sales to Saudi Arabia – as long as those weapons don’t threaten Israel’s military dominance over the ME. Israel sees KSA as a key part of the coalition in the coming war Israel is instigating against Iran and wants KSA well armed for that task. But because of Israeli opposition, Saudi Arabia and UAE are trhe only major US allies not permitted to purchase F-35’s. Israel has no problem with KSA acquiring as many F15’s as the royal family can afford. .
I believe that is so. But there may come a time — as took place during the Reagan presidency as noted by Mr. Knapp — that Israel will oppose such a sale. Then we would have the battle of the heavyweights and see who is really the number one power who owns our politicians. I honestly have no clue as to who would win. As you note, they have been on the same side for a long time.
The Zionists have as much control over the MIC boardrooms as they have over the MSM, the Congress and our universities. If the MIC had any independence then Boeing, Lockheed, et. al. would have already stood up to the Zionist lobby when Israel vetoed the sales of AWACs and F-35’s to the Saudis.
Where it would get interesting would be if Trump (the unpredictable egotist) actually imposed sanctions on KSA. Iran Press TV reports that the countermeasures being considered by the Saudis include reconciliation with Iran. That would be a major game changer.
See
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/10/14/577020/Saudi-Arabia-Iran-reconciliation-Khashoggi-US-sanctions
I would not be surprised.
True but in terms of percentage of GDP Oman beats Saudi Arabia.
What is wrong with selling arms? You know what else the world buys? American cars , medicine , food etc etc. We should seek to have good relations and trade with everyone.
What is wrong is the millions of innocents they are butchering with our arms, paid for by our “foreign aid.”
so if you sell someone a car , and they use it to kill someone are you responsible ?
If I sell someone a car I assume they will use it for transportation. If I sell lethal weapons to an irresponsible country that is at war with an impoverished neighbor, which is causing a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions, I would assume they’d use those weapons in said war. Your gun ownership analogy doesn’t work here.
That gets to the heart of the US problem with the Saudis. The US sold those arms at a high premium price, to recycle petrodollars. That was part of the deal ending the 1974 Oil Embargo. But that means that now the Saudis have a decades-long pile of weapons rivaling what Kahdafi built up. Like him, they can’t even use them, they just kept buying them.
Now, as the pre-eminent country that actually paid for arms, overpaid, (as distinct from Israel, gifted them at nominal bargain rates) to the tune of hundreds of billions, they are finally using them for purposes intended. If the US cuts them off, on parts and the ability to use those arms, what does that do to the US arms sales worldwide? It means nations dare not put their defense money into things that are at the mercy of US domestic politics.
This puts the entire US arms sales program in jeopardy. If we betray our best customer, we’d do it to anyone (and of course we freely do, as with billions of dollars of paid-for F-16’s not delivered to Pakistan, sitting on flat tires at some delivery depot for a decade).
It is the industry itself, that whole practice, that comes into question. THAT is big money, and what is challenged here.
weapons can be used to keep the peace as well as attack people. Its the user that determines the end state.
Then cut them off when the end state is what’s happening in Yemen. It’s no longer an unknown.
The US should sell weapons to everyone without restrictions.
We pretty much do. So you’ve got your wish.
Implying you cant use a car as a weapon. see trucks of peace.
I wasn’t implying any such thing. Only that under normal circumstances cars are sold for transportation and lethal weapons are sold to kill people.
Then let the arms sales take place on the free market instead of being both approved by the US government and facilitated through the US bureaucracy.
Many buyers of US arms are buying those arms with US foreign aid money. In particular, Israel.
In fact, that’s one excuse defenders of the “special relationship” offer for the billions in aid to Israel — “we give them a dollar, and then they use that dollar to buy US-made weapons.”
Which is just a coy way of saying that US aid to Israel is actually just another way of funneling corporate welfare checks from American workers to American “defense” contractors.
The topic is about saudi arms sales, we all know what the deal is with Israeli arms give-a-aways.
Oh, my. What if the Saudis buy their arms from RUSSIA?
And the families of all killed by these, absolutely KNOW THIS. Only Americans are ignorant of these facts.
All this money spent and still they can’t make any progress against the hapless Yemenis. Goes to show how incompetent they are. They might as well still be riding around horses.
If Trump was the peace president that Raimondo believes him to be, it would be easy for Trump to get Russia, China, France and UK to agree to an arms embargo on KSA. But if it turns out the mad prince ordered Khashoggi’s murder, then Trump will probably impose some “drastic sanction” like supporting a two year ban of Saudi teams from FIFA.
Fifteen of the nineteen were Saudis. Many were aided here in the US by Saudi govt people. Osama was sponsored by Saudis (and the CIA). The head-chopper training centers across SW Asia — madrassas — are all Saudi funded. The head-choppers of Syria, many/most of them graduates of the madrassas, were all on the Saudi/Qattari payroll. In short, the Saudis are the primary state sponsor of boots-on-the-ground for the global reach of radical Islamic terrorism — Wahabbism. And Wahabbism is the state supported religion of the KSA. The KSA is essentially at war with the US and the rest of the West. (And Israel has no problem with that, delighted to have the US at war with Israel’s Islamic adversaries, as Israel is working on its own effort to gradually dominate the entire world. Their intelligence services saw 911 coming, monitored its progress here in the US with its “art student” intel agents, ***and DID NOT WARN the US***.)
Despite my anti-war commitment, I hold that the US and the West is under attack by Saudi-sponsored Wahabbism — a state of war exists — and the correct response should be to send in the marines and clean out the cancer. Change the govt, change the culture, keep the arms contract, confiscate the wealth of the Saudi monarchy and TAKE THE F*CKING OIL.
Solve the goddamn problem!