Global Design: U.S. Deal With Saudis

No truck gets stuck in the mud so deeply that it can never be pulled out, not even in the Middle East. Whatever objections anyone may have had to Saddam Hussein’s regime, George W. Bush’s idiotic invasion destroyed the only stable power in the region, and no one honestly believes it can ever rise again.

Iraq’s decline was Iran’s resurrection, and the United States thereby created a huge strategic problem for itself. Naturally, if you want to hitch people up to pull the vehicle out of the hole, you have to butter them up a bit. When it comes to Saudi Arabia, the United States has always been successful on that front. The two nations just concluded the largest arms sales deal in American history. The Saudis will get high-tech weapons and equipment worth $60 billion over the next ten years.

Thus equipped, the Wahhabi kingdom – known for a financially significant sympathy with certain not-exactly-America-friendly Taliban and Palestinian groups – will transform into a new center of power. This will happen without protest from Israel. If it is anti-Iranian, everything is just fine. Besides, Israel will not be at a disadvantage in any way when it comes to the most modern military technology or their negotiations with the Palestinians.

The $60 billion deal also has domestic policy advantages for Obama. It compensates for the defense spending cuts he’s making and has the added advantage of creating 70,000 permanently secure jobs, according to experts. Every vote counts in getting himself re-elected – even if he is not close to delivering what he promised the voters he would do in the first place.