The United States may be on the verge of its largest arms sale ever, a package of aircraft and weapons systems for Saudi Arabia that could total $60 billion when the final bill is done, according to a report in Monday’s Wall Street Journal.
Key components of the sale would be Boeing F-15 fighter jets – as many as 84 new ones and the refurbishment of 70 others – and helicopters including 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and three dozen Little Birds.
Discussions are also under way over naval and missile defense systems for the Saudis, the Journal reported.
Meanwhile, Boeing is a contender in another F-15 sale, this time to South Korea.
The Korea Times reported Monday that the Pentagon has approved a Boeing request to market a stealth version of the F-15, dubbed the Silent Eagle, to Seoul.
The Times points out, however, that Lockheed-Martin’s F-35 Lightning and the Eurofighter Typhoon may be stronger contenders to win a South Korean order for 60 fighter jets.
So.... we arm our enemies when they are our allies (Saddam Hussein, anyone?) then wonder why they have the military backing to kick our asses when we invade their country the moment they are no longer in our best interest.
Does anyone else have a problem with this? And, if we have so much surplus military gear, can we FINALLY pull some of this money out of defense and put it into, I don’t know, education and healthcare? I mean, 84 new jets just sitting around since construction? At $100 million per unit?
Yeah, for those counting, that’s $8.4 Billion. $8.4 billion that could have (should have) been helping this economy, our schools and our nation.
Public schools around the nation suffer from unmanageable deficits each year, churning out undereducated kids into a work environment which demands a certificate of higher learning for even the most basic of jobs these days. Granted, we need a strong military force, but no so overpowered that we have munitions and weapons of war sitting around unused, just waiting to be auctioned to the highest bidder.
For those who are so opposed to an Islamic community center being built near Ground Zero, how do you justify the military selling heavy weaponry to the Middle East? (arguably the center for radical Islamic terrorist activity) Are they so radical we disallow a potential site of prayer here yet openly and graciously offer military hardware over there?
To quote one of the most famous and understated philosophical geniuses of our time: “Jane, stop this crazy thing!”