20 Billion military aid package for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc

[Trancendental]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are teaming up in the Middle East to promote the U.S. aims of winning Arab help in Iraq and on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and countering Iran.
...

Gates and Rice came to the region bearing gifts: an arms package valued at possibly more than $20 billion for Saudi Arabia and five other Persian Gulf nations that Bush will ask Congress to approve, according to the Defense Department. Included in the package are advanced satellite-guided bombs, fighter-aircraft upgrades and new naval vessels. The U.S. is also negotiating 10- year military aid agreements with Egypt and Israel that may total $43 billion, renewing aid deals that expire this year with both countries.

Giving more bombs to Middle-East countries.

 

[evanft]

Giving non-humanitarian foreign ad is kinda retarded.

 

[Zing]

Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.

In short, 20 bill to five random countries ain't shit.

 

[SpazX]

It's nice to see that they've learned from the mistakes of arming and funding Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan (and others).

It's obvious that they believe irony can be used to protect people from terrorist attacks.

 

[trq]

[quote name='camoor']Giving more bombs to Middle-East countries. [/QUOTE]

The governments of said countries are not, to crib an american concept, created equal.

 

[RollingSkull]

[quote name='Zing']Total U.S. aid to Israel is approximately one-third of the American foreign-aid budget, even though Israel comprises just .001 percent of the world's population and already has one of the world's higher per capita incomes. Indeed, Israel's GNP is higher than the combined GNP of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza. With a per capita income of about $14,000, Israel ranks as the sixteenth wealthiest country in the world; Israelis enjoy a higher per capita income than oil-rich Saudi Arabia and are only slightly less well-off than most Western European countries.

In short, 20 bill to five random countries ain't shit.[/quote]

I'm about 60% sure most of that aid started with Jimmeh Carter's peace plan, giving massive moneys to Israel and... Egypt was it?

Or 10% possibility it might have been Clinton, but I really am not sure.

Still, nuance.

Related, humanitarian foreign aid can be equally retarded. You just end up feeding the people so the government can keep the money to build arms.