Forget building a mosque at ground zero, let’s just give them an air force. That’ll learn ’em. It’s celebration time for our defense industry, cuz the Saudis have their checkbook out in a BIG way.
“I think it would be the largest ever,” said William Hartung, director of the New York City-based New America Foundation’s Arms and Security Initiative.
“Other deals that used to be considered large,” like the $9 billion sale of 72 F-15s to the Saudis in 1992-93 or the kingdom’s $9 billion acquisition of U.S. AWACS surveillance aircraft in 1981, “aren’t even in the ballpark, even allowing for inflation,” Hartung said.
The package includes 84 F-15s at a cost of $30 billion and helicopter sales totaling about $30 billion that include spare parts, training simulators, long-term logistics support and some munitions.
I think you can fuck some shit up with 84 F-15’s and $30 billion worth of attack helicopters. Hey, like you might even be able to make life miserable for an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf. Do all these military aircrafts come with a secret auto-destruct button in case real Arabians ever take power from the profligate Royal Family? What if some deranged prince loans one to Usama bin-Laden so he can strafe lower Manhattan? I can make shit up, too, and it’s more plausible than whatever Newt Gingrich comes up with. But you don’t hear any wingnuts complaining about this deal as some kind of threat to our national security. Why is that?
It’s because all their outrage has to be manufactured. If no one tells them to be outraged, they are too stupid to do it on their own. Allowing a mosque to be built is a mortal threat to our way of life. Selling advanced military aircraft to the Wahhabis that run Saudi Arabia? That’s good for the economy.
