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White Elephants - by Uri Avnery

White Elephants - by Uri Avnery
Allah, in his infinite wisdom, has seen to it that almost all the huge Middle East oil reserves are located in Shi'ite areas: in Iran, in the south of Iraq, and the Shi'ite areas of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf principalities. If these reserves slip away from U.S. control, it will cause a drastic change in the balance of power, not only in the region but in the entire world.

Therefore, the strengthening of Saudi Arabia – ruled by conservative Sunnis – makes a lot of sense from the American point of view. However, the arms deal is quite irrelevant to this.

The Saudis do not need weapons. They have an instrument that is much more effective than any number of airplanes and tanks: an inexhaustible supply of dollars. They use it to finance friends, buy influence, and bribe leaders.

On the other side, Saudi Arabia is unable to maintain the weapons that are flowing to it. It does not have enough pilots for the airplanes it is buying, nor crews for the tanks. The new weaponry will collect sand in the desert, like all the expensive weapons it has bought in the past.
So what is the sense in buying more weapons to the tune of $20 billion?

Well, the Saudis are selling oil to the Americans for dollars. A lot of oil, a lot of dollars. The United States, with a huge gap in its balance of trade, cannot afford to lose these billions. So, in order to make it possible for the U.S. to carry this burden, the Saudis must give back at least a part of the money. How? Quite simple: they buy American arms that they don't need.

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