Diary had been updated – Oui
That’s been clear for over a decade …
Arms race between Israel and the Gulf States provided by and bought from western master states: Britain, France, Germany and the USA. What to think of the Ukraine crisis? Purely artificial to further an arms race between Europe and Russia. NATO nations are urged to double their yearly defense spending and not on personnel! Guess who will provide the greatest haul of orders?
U.S. Arms Sales Preserve Israel’s Edge – or pdf version here
When the United States sells state-of-the-art weapons systems to Arab nations, it invariably provides even more lethal and sophisticated arms to its steadfast ally, Israel, in order to help counter the firepower of its neighbours.
So, when Egypt gets the M60A3 and M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, Israel gets the TOW-2A and Hellfire anti-tank missiles to blow up the Egyptian vehicles – in the event of a military confrontation between the two countries currently wedded to the 1979 Camp David peace treaty.
Likewise, when the United States grudgingly provides McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter planes to Saudi Arabia, Israel is armed either with Sidewinder and Sparrow air-to-air missiles or Hawk and Stinger surface-to-air missiles to bring down the U.S.-supplied Saudi aircraft.
Every U.S. government has ensured that no weapons sales to Arab nations would undermine Israel’s traditional “qualitative (military) edge ” QME over its perceived rivals.
Last week, the administration of President George W. Bush ran true to form when it announced its decision to simultaneously sell arms both to Israel and seven Arab nations: Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
The package, which is also expected to include one set of weapons to counter the other, includes equipment worth some 20 billion dollars to Saudi Arabia and five other Gulf states, plus 30 billion dollars in military assistance to Israel, and 13 billion dollars in similar grants to Egypt, mostly for purchases of U.S.-made weapons systems.
The Bush administration has justified the whopping arms sales as an attempt to militarily strengthen Israel, Egypt and the Gulf states against Iran. [Israel, which has long opposed plans to boost Arab militaries, said it understood U.S. rationale.]
But academics, peace activists and military analysts see a more sinister and commercial reason for unrestrained arms sales to a politically volatile region.
“The only ‘winners’ from this deal are U.S. weapons contractors,” says Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, a senior fellow with the Centre for Peace and Security Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
“For the U.S. defence industry, this is Christmas in July,” she added, pointing out that the Bush administration’s statements that these sales will somehow deter Iran aren’t convincing.
…
During a swing through the Middle East last week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the proposed arms sales will also “bolster the forces of moderation and support a broader strategy to counter the negative influences of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.”Dr. Goldring said Rice fails to effectively counter the argument that these sales are more likely to promote instability in the recipient countries because of hostility toward the United States.
h/t Tikun Olam – War is America’s Business
Continued below the fold …
U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market
New York Times | by Thom Shanker | Aug. 26, 2012 |WASHINGTON — Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales
to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran’s regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress.Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.
The American weapons sales total was an “extraordinary increase” over the $21.4 billion in deals for 2010, the study found, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history of United States arms exports. The previous high was in fiscal year 2009, when American weapons sales overseas totaled nearly $31 billion.
A worldwide economic decline had suppressed arms sales over recent years. But increasing tensions with Iran drove a set of Persian Gulf nations — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman — to purchase American weapons at record levels.
… (Graphic)
These Gulf states do not share a border with Iran, and their arms purchases focused on expensive warplanes and complex missile defense systems.
The report was prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress. The annual study, written by Richard F. Grimmett and Paul K. Kerr and delivered to Congress, is considered the most detailed collection of unclassified arms sales data available to the public.
The agreements with Saudi Arabia included the purchase of 84 advanced F-15 fighters, a variety of ammunition, missiles and logistics support, and upgrades of 70 of the F-15 fighters in the current fleet.
Sales to Saudi Arabia last year also included dozens of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, all contributing to a total Saudi weapons deal from the United States of $33.4 billion, according to the study.
Selling Arms to Saudi Arabia: Weapons Purchases, Money and U.S. Foreign Relations video (1989)
Presentation by Richard Clarke to advance sale of tanks to ally Saudi Arabia - 1989
US Budget Control Act has not yet affected US-based producers | SIPRI Stockholm |
Starting in 2011, the combination of limits on US defence spending imposed by the 2011 Budget Control Act (BCA) and the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan and Iraq triggered a gradual decline in US arms companies’ sales. The trend continued in 2013 with a decrease of 4.5 per cent in the total estimated arms sales of US companies ranked in the SIPRI Top 100 compared with sales in 2012. The number of US producers in the Top 100 also reduced from 42 companies in 2011 to 38 in 2013.
‘This is a consequence of US companies divesting portfolio activities facing substantial decreases, specifically those relying on demand for equipment and services related to major operations overseas,’ says Dr Fleurant.