Posted on 08/08/2007 1:07:14 AM PDT by bruinbirdman
The Bush administration is asking Congress to approve a $20 billion arms sales package to Saudi Arabia, with the justification that a better-armed Saudi Arabia may serve as a "counterbalance" to the threat posed to us by Iran.
"This is absurd," said Alex Epstein, a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. "The administration has been telling us that we must forgo oil for more costly fuels because our 'addiction to oil' helps finance hostile Middle East regimes--among them Saudi Arabia, which has spent almost $100 billion spreading the terrorists' ideology of Islamic Totalitarianism. And yet at the same time that our leaders demand that we sacrifice oil-consumption for the sake of protection from the Saudis, they are arming the Saudis to the teeth.
"What explains this blatant contradiction? While one might attribute it to simple hypocrisy, the Bush Administration is in fact being consistent. In response to both the Saudi threat and the Iranian threat, our response is not self-assertion, but self-sacrifice. When Saudi Arabia spreads a terrorist ideology around the world, we do not punish that regime, we punish ourselves by rejecting the lifeblood of our civilization. And when Iran unleashes even more terrorist aggression, we do not destroy that regime, we imperil ourselves by arming our Saudi enemies and hoping it will somehow protect us. Indeed, the same pattern has been at work in the Iraq fiasco; to the extent the Hussein regime was a threat to us, we did not simply use our military to end it, but instead set out to sacrifice American money and lives to bring the good life to the hostile tribal Iraqis.
"The pattern here follows a definite principle; America has no right to use its unmatched military might for its own sake—it is duty-bound to sacrifice its soldiers, money, and self-defense.
"America, the most moral and most powerful nation on earth, has both the right and the ability to end state sponsorship of terrorism. But we will not be able to do so until we abandon our addiction, not to oil, but to the morality of self-sacrifice."
good ridiculous tripe
Let me smoke a few joints and then I’ll comprehend the logic of the article.
excuse me???
By all means revel in your ignorance or better yet crawl back to KOS where you came from.
Let’s really be consistent and kill all Muslims...I forget, how many billion are there?
In 1990, in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Saudi government allowed American troops to be stationed in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden was incensed that non-believers (American soldiers) were stationed in the birthplace of Islam. He also charged the Saudi regime with deviating from true Islam.
Bin Laden was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991 because of his anti-government activities. He eventually wound up in Sudan, where he worked with Egyptian radical groups in exile.
What you seem to be saying is that your resolve is incumbent upon the size of your enemy.
The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. Saudi Arabia is not your friend. This arms sale has the potential to back fire especially if the Islamists take Saudi Arabia the way they did Iran. But either way, Saudi Arabia is the No. 1 exporter of radical Islamic ideology, even to the U.S. The only reason we are considering this sale is because we are dependent on Saudi oil. You should understand the danger inherent in this situation.
The only reason we are considering this sale is because we are dependent on Saudi oil.”
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“The US economy is based on the global oil market. The value of the US dollar is propped up by the fact that it is the world’s principle currency. Some things, like Saudi oil, can only be purchased in US dollars. So that means that oil-importing countries have to keep enormous supplies of US dollars on reserve.
The fewer US dollars are held internationally, the lower the value of the dollar becomes on the international market. Since Iran and Venezuela began demanding euros instead of dollars for their oil exports the value of the euro has skyrocketed while the dollar continues to plummet.
If the Saudis abrogated their “dollars only” agreement with Washington, it could conceivably tank the economy, making the Great Depression look like a minor recession by comparison.”
Don’t accuse me of falsehoods.
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