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White House wants to sell JDAMs to the Saudis
The Hill ^ | November 20, 2007

Posted on 11/20/2007 7:25:38 AM PST by ddtorquee

House members from both parties are calling on the Bush administration to delay a $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia and to impose tougher restrictions on how the Middle Eastern country could use the weaponry.

Last week, the Bush administration informally notified Congress of its intention to sell high-technology armaments, including satellite-guided munitions and naval vessels, to Saudi Arabia, which is a key ally in the region. Lawmakers have protested the sale since news first leaked of negotiations in late July.

“The idea that we are going to reward the Saudis with precision weaponry is a stunningly bad idea, and clearly deserves the full review of Congress,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) in a press release.

...another bipartisan group of House members called for stricter guidelines on how Saudi Arabia could use the U.S.-sold weapons. Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Chris Carney (D-Pa.) and 186 other lawmakers expressed “serious concerns” over selling Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) technology — highly accurate precision arms — to the Saudis.

“If it falls into the wrong hands, JDAM technology could significantly harm U.S. forces in the region and undercut Israel’s qualitative military edge,” the letter states.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: congress; jdams; ropbushsfriends; saudiarabia; weaponssales; wot
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To: F15Eagle

Thank you.


41 posted on 11/20/2007 10:03:14 AM PST by gathersnomoss (General George Patton had it right.)
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To: Dr. Thorne
Yaeh, they’re just great. Sounds like you’ve chosen your side.

In the real world, you don't often get a chance to choose one side over another, good over bad, rather it is usually choosing between shades of gray, worse versus worst. We allied ourselves with Stalin to defeat Hitler.

I failed to mention that I served in Iran during the overthrow of the Shah, i.e., 1978-79. There is no comparison between the mullahs and the House of Saud. Carter and Vance had good intentions, i.e., get rid of the corrupt and oppressive Shah. What they got was something far worse and we are still living with the consequences.

42 posted on 11/20/2007 10:03:40 AM PST by kabar
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To: dfwgator

Will a Republican candidate take this up? Where is Duncan?


43 posted on 11/20/2007 10:04:36 AM PST by gathersnomoss (General George Patton had it right.)
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To: Moonman62

“Why in the world would Saudi Arabia need those weapons?”

I say give ‘em as many as they want.
Controlled and dropped by USA planes, flown by USA pilots, and used
to turn back any horde invading SA to get the oil we buy from SA.

But given to the SA military?
Maybe when the end-times are clearly here!


44 posted on 11/20/2007 10:07:40 AM PST by VOA
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To: kabar
They are the world's largest source of exportable oil...

The sum total of their positive worth to the world.
Everything else flowing from the "kingdom" is a problem.

45 posted on 11/20/2007 10:19:14 AM PST by Dagnabitt
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To: kabar
Nice analogy. The enemy who will kill you now or the enemy who will kill you later. How about this?: A plague on both their houses. We do the right thing and create energy independence right here and tell the Saudis to drink their oil.

Many Americans are sick of expedience - your "real world" - at the expense of the ideal. We have the capacity to avoid compromising what is best to end up with something we can live with.

BTW, Patton wanted to use the leftover Germans to fight the Russians and MacArthur wanted to nuke Beijing. Imagine the millions of lives that would have been saved had we taken their initiative instead of deciding we could live with the Communist threat.

46 posted on 11/20/2007 10:21:52 AM PST by Dr. Thorne (Compromise on your vote and you get a compromised government.)
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Comment #47 Removed by Moderator

To: ddtorquee

That sounds like a pretty JDAM bad idea to me.


48 posted on 11/20/2007 12:42:08 PM PST by Kevmo (We should withdraw from Iraq — via Tehran. And Duncan Hunter is just the man to get that job done.)
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To: Dr. Thorne
We do the right thing and create energy independence right here and tell the Saudis to drink their oil.

We live in the present. We import 60% of our oil. Yes, we need to be energy independent, but that is going to take a long time and our political leadership has proven to be impotent. We can't even exploit our own natural resources because of environmental concerns.

Many Americans are sick of expedience - your "real world" - at the expense of the ideal. We have the capacity to avoid compromising what is best to end up with something we can live with.

That is all well and good. But who is going to bell the cat? Capacity represents potential, but until we realize that potential, we must exist the best way we can. We are in a competition for oil, which is experiencing rising demand due to the rising affluence of the Chinese and others and a world population that increases annually by 57 million, which is the equivalent of adding a new Italy every year.

49 posted on 11/20/2007 12:44:14 PM PST by kabar
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To: Dr. Thorne
Achieving Energy Victory
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/18/zubrin.htm
50 posted on 11/20/2007 12:57:59 PM PST by ddtorquee
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To: Moonman62

Isn’t the US government trying to push a saled modernized F-15s to Saudi Arabia ? And hasn’t Saudi Arabia announced it was thinking of buying Eurofighters or possibly French Rafales ? JDAMs would be just the deal sweetener Riyadh needs...


51 posted on 11/20/2007 2:02:02 PM PST by Atlantic Friend (a)
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To: ddtorquee

Will they pay us in Euros?


52 posted on 11/20/2007 2:03:30 PM PST by BurbankKarl
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To: dfwgator
The best idea is to deliver one to Mecca....
53 posted on 11/20/2007 2:10:03 PM PST by pointsal (q)
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