Feeding the Dragon
We are currently just about to sell big packages of high tech arms to Egypt, Jordan, UAE and Saudi Arabia . Ha’aretz, says that the Israeli government is not happy about it. We’re only supposed to sell these countries second class weapons, but now we’re giving them F15s and Hellfire missiles. We’ve been protecting Israel through the years, by giving them an edge in the local weapons race. And make no mistake, they are still getting the most assistance and the best of the best, subs capable of carrying nuclear warheads, missile defense shields and more. Not only is Israel a seemingly familiar ally in a very foreign, often hostile world, but they are really good customers. You sell them the weapons, and you know they will use them, probably on a target you approve of. Even so, capitalism is prone to prostitution. It’s the way of the world
Israel might well be concerned about the sale of these weapons to Egypt, recipient of the second largest amount of US aid, because Mubarek is old and his son is not popular. Who will control those weapons when he’s gone? Jordan is full of Palestinians, and right on Israel’s border as well. I don’t think they are so rich, but apparently they’re armed to the teeth. And then, there’s Iraq. There weren’t any WMDs when we arrived, but by the time we were dug in, every Iraqi had one or more firearms. When the US Army first arrived in Baghdad, they didn’t secure Sadam’s weapons caches. In fact, when they finally arrived, the weapons were gone. According to an IVAW IEDs in Iraq, most of the materials came from US munitions caches buried in the desert during “Desert Storm” in 1991. Then, of course, Sadam’s army was dismissed without a backward glance, arms and outrage and all.
For myself, I wonder about the whole chain. The Kurdish Peshmerga are well armed, and the Kurds would like to host a permanent US base for self -protection. They want to be protected against an attack by the Iraqi Army we have spent the last 7 years building, which might well be turned on them when we leave. Qatar has the US Central Command, and also Al Jazeera, whose offices we have bombed on occasion, in order to stop them from showing the havoc our wars and our weapons wreak in the region. Next door, tiny, rich, United Arab Emirates are spending their recently diminished wealth on mega arms. And then there is Saudi Arabia, birthplace of the Prophet, and of Al Qaeda.
Sometimes I think they are all just on call, kind of like being registered for the draft. I once asked someone who is an expert on Saudi Arabia what they do with all those expensive weapons we sell them. Do they know how to use them? He said “Not really.” Now I see. They use them in Yemen. It’s a familiar scene, Apache Helicopters firing missiles at insurgent Houthi insurgents carrying mostly light arms, and fighting for civil liberties. They fought in Yemen back in the 60′s as well, against democratically elected socialist government. Nasser of Egypt supported the elected government, but he didn’t have the resources ( read US) of the Saudis, and his army was mired there, leading to Israeli defeats at home.
Yemen’s an interesting case. Here we have a country with 2 factions fighting civil wars against the government. And, we have the Saudi’s helping the government, and now the US wants to help too because it has come to our attention that there is an Al Qaeda organization there. We read in the news about the poor beleaguered government in Yemen. They have 2 insurgencies and an international criminal gang to deal with all at the same time. It seems to me this doesn’t reflect well on the competence of that government. Nor do they appear to have the allegiance of the people. Al Qaeda, a criminal organization with external targets is hardly their first priority. They are fighting to stay in power.
We’ve provided billions of dollars worth of weapons to the Pakistani Army, and for some time now, we have had them using those weapons on our enemies inside their own country. The result is, they are creating new enemies within. Across the border in Afghanistan, we are ‘training’ military men and a ‘police force’. Not so long ago, we were arming the Taliban, now the enemy, against the Soviets, a more interesting enemy at the time. Who will it be next? Individuals change sides there depending on who has control, and what their experiences are. If family members are killed in a drone attack, for instance, the Taliban starts looking like a might good option. But we’re no better. We armed Iran throughout the reign of the Shah and helped initiate the nuclear program we now sanction them for pursuing. We armed and trained the army in Georgia, then expressed surprise when our self inflated, silly puppet president attacked a neighboring area under Russian protection.
India, Pakistan and Israel have all acquired nuclear weapons with our knowledge, and without any serious interference. None have ever signed the non-proliferation treaty. Then and now, we seem determined to bury the Middle East and SouthWest Asia in arms. What is the logical end of this policy? If people have weapons but not enough water and food, they have deadly weapons, but no respect, weapons, but no one to use them on but one another, what will be the result? It isn’t hard to imagine a day when the dragon will open his jaws to roar and set the world afire.