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Jewish World Review
Sept. 15, 2010/ 7 Tishrei, 5771
Recovery Arms Race
By
Arnold Ahlert
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
"Progress in the Middle East is threatened by weapons of mass destruction and their proliferation. Today Great Britain, France and Germany are involved in a difficult negotiation with Iran aimed at stopping its nuclear weapons program. We want our allies to succeed, because we share the view that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be destabilizing and threatening to all of Iran's neighbors. The Iranian regime should listen to the concerns of the world and listen to the voice of the Iranian people who long for their liberty and want their country to be a respected member of the international community. We look forward to the day when Iran joins in the hopeful changes taking place across the region. We look forward to the day when the Iranian people are free."-- President George W. Bush, March 8, 2005
The Democrat Party, in their eagerness to demonize George W. Bush, will probably never accept responsibility for the cause and effect that led to a stunning news story on Monday: the Obama administration announced that it intends to ask Congress to approve a $60 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia. According to the Wall Street Journal, "the administration will authorize the Saudis to buy as many as 84 new F-15 fighters, upgrade 70 more, and purchase three types of helicopters--70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and 36 Little Birds."
This is the largest arms deal in U.S. history. In addition, it is reported that the United States might upgrade Saudi missile defenses and their navy in a separate deal conceivably worth additional tens of billions more.
Why are we doing this? To counter-balance the Iranian nuclear threat.
That would be the threat many Americans thought the Bush administration would forcefully address--until the American left made it clear that anything more than the kind of toothless diplomacy were involved in now would be considered tantamount to a war crime committed by the "world's leading terrorist."
So here we are, selling high-tech military equipment to the country which spawned fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers; sponsors several anti-American mosques and madrassas here in the United States; has held America hostage to manipulated oil prices via OPEC; and maintains a status quo of dictatorial government and the routine suppression of women.
Apparently the president who received a Nobel Peace Prize sees an accelerated Middle East arms race as a workable alternative to unequivocally encouraging regime change--even though regime change is the only realistic alternative to military action against Iran. How he squares that arms race with an announced 2012 conference ostensibly aimed at ridding the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction is anyone's guess. The administration is also implying that such a deal is necessary lest the Saudis purchase weapons from Europe or the Russians.
Those would be the same Russians who shipped Iran uranium to fuel their Bushehr nuclear power plant. And it would be the same Iranian regime whose Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki announced would continue enriching nuclear fuel. This latest statement is an apparent contradiction of president Ahmadinejad's promise to "stop enriching uranium to 20% purity (very close to weapon's grade) if we are ensured fuel supply," made during an August 21st interview with a Japanese newspaper.
Yet bolstering Saudi Arabia's military capability remains troubling. I suspect I'm not the only American who considers our relationship with Saudi Arabia to be a "marriage of convenience" at best--much like the one FDR had with Josef Stalin during WWll. I'd like to think somewhere in the bowels of our government there are clear-headed individuals immune to the "special relationship" sloganeering bought and paid for by millions of Saudi public relations dollars. I would like to think that the country which spawned Wahabbism, the most virulent form of Isamic fanaticism, would be perceived for exactly what it is: 5000 despotic royals sitting atop a radical Islamic powder keg, waiting to see which "stronger horse" emerges in the Middle East.
Unfortunately, that is not the characterization of Saudi Arabia on which either either political party in Washington D.C. is willing to stand. The very same American left which crucified the Bush administration's cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia has been relatively sanguine with respect to the Obama administration's relationship--even though they're virtually identical. And if the Wall Street Journal is correct in its assessment of Congressional sentiment, this arms sale will be approved.
One would think the president owes Americans a better explanation for the sale than we're currently getting. Aside from its contention that such a sale is a counter-measure to Iran's regional ambitions, the administration is shamelessly touting it as a jobs producer capable of generating up to 77,000 new positions.
With respect to the former contention, it is worth remembering that this administration's best opportunity for undermining Iran's nuclear weapons quest was immediately following what most of the world considered the rigged re-election of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian dissidents took to the street in surprising force and a violent crackdown by the regime ensued. A perfect time for the leader of the free world to stand with the freedom fighters? A uniquely opportune moment to establish a clear difference between "moderate Muslims" and their fanatical counterparts?
"It is not productive, given the history of US-Iranian relations to be seen as meddling--the US president, meddling in Iranian elections"--President Barack Obama, June 2009
With respect to the latter contention, better to sell that failure of nerve as a "jobs" bill.
Yet even that bit of sophistry is undone by reality: the Obama administration is targeting the oil industry for two big tax hikes which, according to the Commerce Department, could cost Americans more than 150,000 jobs.
Jobs "created or saved" by combining both initiatives? 77,000 created vs. 150,000 "uncreated." You do the math.
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton characterized America's runaway debt as a "national security issue." Perhaps someone should ask her what she considers sending billions of dollars in oil revenue to our third largest supplier, even as her boss continues to support a moratorium on domestic offshore drilling--which is also a jobs-killer. Perhaps both Clinton and Obama could explain how ramping up arms sales in the Middle East to the highest level in history squares with the president's stated desire to "end the nuclear arms race."
And how soon before our other Middle East allies get on the "arm us too" bandwagon?
No matter. None of it will deter Iran. There is no deterrence for their Koran-inspired worldview which posits that they are responsible for engineering the re-emergence of the Hidden or Twelfth Imam--a second coming which requires a "period of chaos" to precede it. The intellectual elitists believe this is nothing more than talk. Maybe they should speak to the families of American soldiers killed by Iranian-made IEDS, or the Israeli victims of Iran's proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah. Maybe they should speak with the families of Iranian dissidents who have been jailed, tortured and killed.
"The advance of hope in the Middle East also requires new thinking in the capitals of great democracies, including Washington, D.C. By now it should be clear that decades of excusing and accommodating tyranny in the pursuit of stability have only led to injustice and instability and tragedy."--George W. Bush, same speech as above.
Apparently not enough injustice, instability and tragedy to make a difference. At least not to the Obama administration. Better a $60 billion, job-creating, "Muslim outreach" counter-measure.
Can the slogan, "Recovery Arms Race" be far behind?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Comment on JWR Contributor Arnold Ahlert's column, by clicking here.
Previously:
09/13/10: Bigots in the Majority --- Again?
09/09/10: Giving Voters Something to Vote For
09/07/10: Irresponsible Dems, Incomprehensible Bills
09/02/10: War Weary Americans vs. Implacable Islamists
08/31/10: A Dream Debased
08/25/10: American Bigots Versus Media Propagandists
08/23/10: Recovery Bummer
08/19/10: An Unholy Alliance of Radicals
08/16/10: You've Lost America, Mr. President
08/13/10: The Twin Towers of Progressive Disconnect
08/11/10: A Far Better National Discussion
08/09/10: It's Only One Dead Nun
08/06/10: Incremental Tyranny
08/04/10: Ground Zero Mosque: Context Counts
08/02/10: The Arizona Ruling: a Gift for November
07/29/10: The United Cities of America
07/26/10: JournoList: Coordinated Ideological Bankruptcy
07/20/10: Go For Broke Or Get Out of the Way
07/14/10: You're a Liberal/Progressive if You Believe…
07/12/10: $33-an-hour--For Sleeping On the Job
07/08/10: Extortionist Government
07/06/10: Commerce Clause Totalitarians
07/01/10: Another Public School Travesty in MA
06/30/10: Calling YOUR Bluff, Mr. President
06/28/10: A Trifecta of Progressive Corruption
06/23/10: Plug the Darn Hole --- In Our Border
06/21/10: Our Empty-Suit-in-Chief
06/16/10: Betraying Our Children
06/14/10: Who Gets the Benefit of the Doubt?
06/07/10: Politically Correct Warfare
06/01/10: Bill Maher's Black President
05/25/10: A Mosque At Ground Zero
05/23/10: Libs Stand Tall --- For Mexico
05/19/10: The 'Unintended Consequences' of Liberalism
05/17/10: 'Los' Suns: Stuck on Stupido
05/12/10: Union Audacity: Yes We Will!
05/10/10: Greeks, Leaks and and Double-Speak
05/05/10: Twelve Million Illegals --- or Thirty?
05/02/10: Republicans: Playing Not to Lose Doesn't Cut It
04/28/10: Arizona: Progressivism's Waterloo?
04/26/10: Son of Amnesty
04/22/10: Mortgages and Moral Meltdowns
04/20/10: Bashing Christians Or Gays?
04/15/10: Personal Integri-tea
04/12/10: Fools, Tools and Ghouls
04/08/10: (Tea) Party On
04/05/10: The Triumph of Mediocrity
04/02/10: Two For the Road
03/29/10: The Innate Immorality of Liberalism
03/24/10: The Art of War
03/22/10: I Want My Country Back
03/18/10: A Perpetual Process
03/17/10: American Exhibitionists
03/15/10: A Light Bulb Moment of Clarity
03/10/10: Little Things Mean A Lot
02/03/10: Budgetary Fork in the Road
02/01/10: Liberal Economic Illiteracy
01/27/10: Roe-ing and Wade-ing Back to Reason
01/25/10: Arrogance When Up, Denial When Down
01/20/10: Connecting the Educational Dots
01/19/10: The Next Tea Party?
01/15/10: The Myth That Keeps on Giving
01/13/10: Airport Security Begins Away From the Airport
01/11/10: Secrets and Lies
01/08/10: Embracing Bigotry or Rejecting Bullying?
01/06/10: Hanging by an Ideological Thread
01/04/10: Our Wonderama Bureaucracy
12/30/09: A Day Off
12/28/09: Dangerous Myths
12/25/09: I, Me, Mine
12/23/09: A Very Harry Christmas
12/21/09: My Opinon
12/18/09: The Party of Repeal
12/15/09: Privileged Exemption
11/30/09: Settled Science and Unsettled Children
11/30/09: American Sharia Law
11/23/09:The Trial (Travesty) of the Century
11/04/09: American Vampires and Their Political Enablers
11/01/09: Opting Out of Insanity?
10/28/09: Cell Phones Cause Brain Cancer. Brain Required
10/26/09: Communism: Nazism With Better PR
10/21/09: Just Asking
10/16/09: Cost Projections vs. Actual Costs, or Hope and Change vs. Reality
10/14/09: News you can use …
10/07/09: Incremental Insidiousness
10/05/09: MIA: Common Sense and Common Decency
09/30/09: Iran: Bad Options and Unpreparedness
09/21/09: Crying Racism: the Last Refuge of Scoundrels
09/11/09: 9/11 Cannot Be Sanitized
09/08/09: Truthers and Consequences
09/01/09: A Paper Trail Challenge for the Mainstream Media
08/31/09: Drowning in Amorality
08/26/09: The Republican Recovery Program
© 2010, Arnold Ahlert
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