-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 1, 2007 3:38:02 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: Why Does Saudi Arabia Need Military Aid?
But the biggest mystery is the official reason given for handing
these billions
over to Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- that, according to Zalmay
Khalilzad, U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, is because "Saudi Arabia and
others are not
doing all they can to help us in Iraq." So, they're rewarded like
that. Well,
I've done shit to help America in Iraq -- can I please have a
helicopter?
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.
From: "Jim S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: August 1, 2007 3:35:31 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Why Does Saudi Arabia Need Military Aid?
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------
"America is a nation founded on the principle that all human life
is sacred...
Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not
ethical."-- G.W.
Bush on the occasion of vetoing Congressional bill on stem cell
research. June
20, 2007
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18106.htm
*Why Does Saudi Arabia Need Military Aid?*
The Saudis are getting $13bn. How can they spend that? Have Prada
moved into tanks?
By Mark Steel
08/01/07
"The Independent" -- Here's something they sneaked out this week
with hardly
anyone noticing -- the Americans have announced a "military aid
package" of sixty
billion dollars for their allies in the Middle East. Or, to be
grammatically
correct, 60 billion, that's 60 thousand million bastard dollars!!!
How can they spend that? Have Prada moved into tanks? Maybe they
now buy these
things at fashion shows, where a commentator gasps: "Ooh, my, my!"
as down the
catwalk comes this exhilarating design for the very latest
satellite-guided
armour-penetrating missile modelled here by Kate Moss, designed, of
course, by
Stella McCartney, and "sure to be this summer's big bold hit when
it comes to
melting the Hizbollah".
This is $250 for every living American, $10 for everyone on the
planet. Are they
taking each weapon out individually for a meal at the Ivy? And
$13bn of this is
for Saudi Arabia. Because if there's one family on this earth in
need of
financial aid, it's the Saudi royal family. Who's getting the rest
-- the Bee
Gees? Anyway, why do the Saudis need military aid at all? Their
favourite
weapon seems to be the stone. I suppose now if a woman commits
adultery or
speaks out of turn, she'll be battered to death with a bloody great
ruby instead.
To get all this in perspective, after the G-8 summit two years ago
in Scotland,
after the Make Poverty History march and concerts, a beaming Tony
Blair announced
a record-breaking global amount of aid of fifty billion dollars.
This time they
seem to be a bit more modest. No one came galloping out of the
White House
joyfully to explain that, after a whole week of negotiating,
they've come up with
more laser-guided firebombs than ever.
But they shouldn't be so modest. Because a sign of how hard it is
to come up
with such sums can be seen from this year's G-8 summit, when they
admitted that
instead of the $50bn they promised in Scotland, it was back to
$25bn after all.
So all those balloons, celebrations, smiley press conferences and
declarations of
a new start for Africa, were about the entire western world
donating to an entire
impoverished continent less than half of what one country has
quietly coughed up
in weapons for the Saudis, Egypt, and Israel.
They do it quietly because how many people would agree with these
priorities? On
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, when Chris Tarrant asks: "What
would you do with
the money if you won a million pounds?," very few people say: "I'd
buy some
cluster bombs." How many people, if they were taken on a tour of
the Middle
East, through Gaza and the wreckage of Iraq and the slums of Cairo,
would say: "I
know what this place needs above all else -- $60bn-worth of deadly
weapons."
How many people would support a charity record called "Death Aid,"
or a night of
TV comedy called "Smiles for Missiles," in which Vernon Kay
wandered through
Angola grimacing: "This village hasn't had a landmine for over a
month. Please,
please, please, send your donation so they too can know what it's
like to watch
someone explode," followed by a special edition of "A Question of
Sport."
One of the reasons given for the difficulty in providing aid to
Africa is their
leaders are corrupt, so there's every chance they'll swipe the
money. So luckily,
when it comes to Saudi Arabia they can rely on that country's
rulers, who would
never fiddle a billion dollars from British Aerospace or do illegal
deals with,
to pick someone at random, Jonathan Aitken.
Maybe the complaint about corruption has been misunderstood and the
Africans
aren't doing enough of it. So, the White House gets reports that
say: "Some
ministers in Malawi go a whole month with barely a single
prostitute being
procured by the arms companies -- how can we possibly do business
with such
people?" And half this generous gift, $30bn-worth of arms, is
being given to
Israel. Surely the problem here is where will they put them all?
They'll be
like parents at Christmas when an over-generous grandparent
delivers sacks full
of presents, and you have to have a clearout of all the old stuff
to make room.
So, if you want a cheap battleship, nip down to a charity shop in
Hebron and
you'll be able to pick one up for a score.
But more weapons is the answer to everything. For example, a U.S.
defence report
on global warming has concluded it could lead to global instability
and mass
migration, proving the necessity of acquiring more weapons to deal
with this.
If anyone from the Pentagon visits Moss Side or Peckham, they'll
announce: "Hey,
these places are in bad shape. So we've given everyone under 25 a
pistol, a
sword, and a tank." If someone from the Pentagon ever worked as a
chef, he'd
taste the sauce and say: "Hmm, it needs something -- basil,
perhaps, or a
sprinkle of fennel? I know, it needs a Stealth bomber."
How does anyone get to see the world from the point of view of the
Pentagon? Who
would look around a world in which 5,000 children a day die for
lack of clean
water and decide that can wait, but the weapons can't?
But the biggest mystery is the official reason given for handing
over this
fortune to Egypt and Saudi Arabia -- that, according to Zalmay
Khalilzad, U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, it's because "Saudi Arabia and
others are not
doing all they can to help us in Iraq." So, they're rewarded like
that. Well,
I've done bugger all to help America in Iraq. Can I have a
helicopter?
© 2007 Independent News and Media Limited.
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