Sunday, July 29, 2007

More weapons for "peace"

In a 7/28/07 article, MSNBC News Services describes plans by the Bush Administration to expand sales of weapons to "friendly nations" in the Middle East. The Israeli government, usually supportive of US militarism, is objecting to this expansion on the grounds that some of the technology at least could be used to attack Israel. Not an unreasonable objection, since historically weapons nearly always fall into the "wrong hands" -- meaning people that we don't like at the moment.

Which is, of course, only of ancillary concern to the Bush crowd, as it looks for new ways to spread the benefits of freedom and democracy to as much of the benighted Middle East as possible. The stated objective is to support "moderates" in Iraq (whoever they may be) by surrounding Iraq (as much as possible) with friends of the USA that are armed to the teeth. Of course, the most important objective is really to send a message to Iran not to "interfere" or else. It's interesting that the US invasion of Iraq is not defined as interference, but that any activities of Iran that might thwart US ambitions in the area are considered interference. Somewhat odd, if you look at a map of the world: Iran is Iraq's next-door neighbor, while the US is 6200 miles away! But that's how things are supposed to work when you are "the world's only remaing superpower," as we like to refer to ourselves.

The Bush Administration has been rattling its sabres in Iran's direction for some time now, but the idea of an invasion of Iran has been somewhat unpopular with a Congress, already smarting from political fallout over its appalling lack of oversight in allowing Bush to invade Iraq. Perhaps Bush wants to increase the concentration of weapons in the already over-armed Middle East in hopes that he can provoke a regional war between Iran and US allies that the US can back behind the scenes without the embarrassment of a direct attack by the USA. There's a lot of precedent for this indirect approach, which has been a smashing success whenever we have used it in the past.

The best thing, though is that, no matter whom the weapons get used against, US armaments manufacturers will make lots of money. And perhaps that is the ultimate purpose after all.

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