Posted on 08/10/2016 6:49:41 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
The US State Department has approved the potential sale of more than 130 Abrams battle tanks, 20 armoured recovery vehicles and other equipment, worth about US$1.15 billion, to Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
The approval for land force equipment coincides with Saudi Arabia leading a military coalition in support of Yemeni forces loyal to the exiled government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi who are trying to oust Iran-allied Houthi forces from the capital, Sanaa. Human rights groups have criticised the coalition’s air strikes because of the deaths of civilians.
The US Defence Security Cooperation Agency, which implements foreign arms sales, said that General Dynamics will be the principal contractor for the sale.
“This sale will increase the Royal Saudi Land Force’s (RSLF) interoperability with US forces and conveys US commitment to Saudi Arabia’s security and armed forces modernization,” the agency said in a notice to lawmakers posted on its website.
Lawmakers have 30 days to block the sale, although such action is rare.
(Excerpt) Read more at scmp.com ...
Arming our enemy. Stupid.
Why don’t we give it to the local PD’s? /s
We should not be giving the Sauds anything, except a few bags of New York excrement.
The Sauds are financing Isis through the back door, and they still stone women for pre marital sex and adultery, but let the men do the scot free bumpsidaisy.
The formerly secret section of the Congressional 9/11 snow job report , recently released, shows that the Saudi intelligence likely knew of the 9/11 plot but did nothing to interfere with it.
Why sell the Saudis conventional weapons? Sell them nukes. They soon will need them to turn Iran and Saudi Arabia into Sodom and Gomorrah.Then we can issue them both a Darwin Award.
We’ve sold weapons to the Saudis for a long time. If we don’t, the Ruskies will - its a game that’s been played out since the 1950’s. At least this way, we control the flow of repair parts and ammunition.
The new, younger Saudi who has taken control is going to be pursuing a more practical approach. I suspect that there are going to be many changes such as closer ties with the US.
Speech,Speech,Speech!
Are we selling the real one or the monkey model?
Where is Saudi Arabia getting the money ? Obama’s unmarked plane ?
“We’ve sold weapons to the Saudis for a long time. If we don’t, the Ruskies will -”
I sell drugs and guns to my neighbor, If I don’t the gang around the corner will.
Dear God please help us get Obama.
Poor analogy.
It is possible to have a neighbor who does not possess drugs or illegal guns. It is not at all realistic to imagine that the entire nation of Saudi Arabia will not have a standing army. It most certainly will have an army - and the only question is who supplies it. And supplying it gives us a smidgeon of control.
RPG magnets for Yemeni tribesmen. Saudis need replacements. One thing for certain, none will suffer as much as a scratch from ISIL in Syria....
The tanks we sell the Saudis are not of the same quality as our own.
Why did we ever get involved with the Middle East, we should have got some of our own damned oil elsewhere.
We domestically source ~55% of our oil. Saudi Arabia accounts for ~7% of our oil supply. Iraq is about 2% of our oil supply. Less than 10% of our oil comes from the Middle East.
The reality is, we stabilize the Middle East so our “allies” (the EU and Asian countries) can have cheap, reliable oil supplies.
And for that less than 10% oil we have to get involved in Arab conflicts and trying to “regime change” that world, I wonder what history would look like if all nations avoided getting any oil from there I wonder.
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