(1) Pakistan Problem Perceived — by Somebody, at Least. Presidential candidate Barack Obama today said very publicly that the United States must prepare to take military action in Pakistan against the Al-Qaeda safe haven that the central government of Pakistan has allowed to develop in the Tribal Areas along the Afghan border. I said the same thing here on July 13th. (See archive at http://antipost.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html and search for "Pakistan Problem".) Obama was criticized immediately by some of the do-nothing types who fear a destabilized Pakistan. His response, at least as I heard it on tonite's ABC World News, was inadequate. He should have said plainly that it is not in our interest to have a stable Pakistan that permits Al-Qaeda to plan and train for attacks upon the United States from stable Pakistan's territory.
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(2) Making Arabs Pay for Israel's Arms. The Bush Administration has advocated selling $20 billion worth of arms, in the next ten years, to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States to strengthen them against intimidation by Iran. To soothe the Zionist lobby, who worry that Saudi arms and U.S. military training in their use could be turned against Israel, Bush cleverly advocated that Israel receive $30 billion worth of arms, half again as much as he proposes be sold to Arabs. The news reports of this proposal that I have seen sneakily conceal the apparent fact that altho the U.S. wants to SELL arms to the Arabs, it will GIVE arms to Israel. What this amounts to, if you think about it for more than 3 seconds, is that Washington wants the Arabs to arm Israel against Arabs!
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Alas, the money to be paid by Arab governments won't (all) go to the U.S. Treasury, where it could offset public outlays — welfare — for Israel, but to private arms dealers. So the public will get back only the taxes on profits of those companies, export license fees, etc. This is, in short, a gigantic welfare program for rich corporations, whereas the welfare we are to send to Israel is to be stolen from American taxpayers' pockets against their will. And since the rich pay almost nothing in taxes as against the rates paid by the middle class and even the poor, the people who are now struggling against foreclosure (up 58% this year!) will have to send their money to Israel so Israel can kill Arabs with it and make enemies for the United States who will be so infuriated by endless, massive U.S. backing for the crimes of Israel that even more Arabs will enlist in Al-Qaeda to kill us. What a brilliant Middle Eastern policy the Bush Administration pursues!
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 3,657 — for Israel.)
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 7:11 PM