two things:
1) much of the front page stuff about arms for the saudis is meant to obfuscate the fact that we are once again arming the israelis--the only country with nuclear weapons in the region. thanks for including that little bit of info.
2) OBL and a bunch of saudi's didn't orchestrate 911. it's the worst, cobbled together conspiracy of all. there are so many holes in the gov't's official story, it's not even funny. a few years ago, a zogby poll (http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=855) found that "Half of New Yorkers Believe US Leaders Had Foreknowledge of Impending 9-11 Attacks and “Consciously Failed” To Act." And after all the criminality and corruption of Bush/Cheney et al, it boggles my mind how many sensible people cling to the official story of 911.
Posted by kebmodee at July 29, 2007 08:48 AMI believe to call US weapons deliveries to Israel as "arm sales to Israel" is a complete misnomer. Most often they are direct grants, or "sales" financed by US government backed "loans" that are almost always forgiven at some later date.
I just get pissed off by my taxes going to support apartheid.
The Saudi deal is a wretched attempt by Cheneybush to make nice with a Saudi Regime that fired us months ago.
Are you not paying attention? We have these things like the BBC and Reuters that are far more useful than the imbecile amerikkkan MSM.
If you follow these sources, you will soon find that Saudis and Iranians have been in regular negotiations and cooperations since February. The whole region is actively cooperating to plan for the inevitable disaster of the stupid Iraq invasion when we end up fleeing in our socks.
Israeli apartheid will eventually collapse as the wiser Israelis know their future hinges on a meaningful settlement. They are also better at translating persian than the Liebertool lobby and are well aware that Iran poses no significant threat.
An odd coincidence of my life has been significant time spent with Arabs from my employers 16 years ago to the Iraqi refugee soldiers who used to get drunk in my Seattle apartment last year.
I basically like them but they have very complex cultural 'cues' you need to know how to read.
They are not generally a 'Direct' culture and tend to beat around the bush with lots of exquisite subtleties that presuppose a handle on their concerns. Imagine the ensuing hilarity when you send brusque unworldly neocon hicks off to deal with these people.
What did Kipling say? "Here lies buried another fool who tried to hustle the East".
Posted by Chris Rich at July 30, 2007 11:08 AM