Low Stoop

George Bush offers allies $20bn of arms to counter Iran

President Bush backed his political rhetoric against Iran yesterday with the promise of a $20 billion arms deal to boost the military clout of Washington’s key allies in the Gulf.

The deal, which could still be blocked by Congress, would see weapons, including Patriot missiles and precision-guided bombs, parcelled out to Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, to counter Iran. The announcement was timed to coincide with Mr Bush’s arrival in Riyadh, where he sought further support from King Abdullah for his continuing campaign against the Islamic Republic.

However, the President’s central message of his Middle East tour – that Gulf States need to confront Iran – has so far failed to gain much traction in this troubled region.

some of the comments:

Another $20 billion that all the Central Banks will just have to print off... Oh well, c'est la vie. Addicted to oil and military equipment as I have said...

Robert Miller, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Bush is acting as a traveling salesman for the U.S. arms manufacturers who contribute to his campaigns and his party. His "arms package" is supposed to look like "aid," but really it's just a sale like any other, a good way to repatriate oil money and get it back in the pockets of working Americans. It's a shame though, that those Americans are working to produce instruments of death rather than clean energy, updated infrastructure, better educated children or better health care.

JimBob, Los Angeles, USA

Unbelievable the friends the USA keeps. They suffer major terrorist attacks from multiple Saudi nationals, and relatives of Saudi leaders, yet find it compelling to offer the leadership more weapons. Creating peace and security by exporting powerful weaponry is not only deadly, but dead wrong. One only needs to follow the trail of arms exports from regime to regime to understand clearly that the prime motivation here is profit not peace.

Eric, El Cerrito, USA / California