Saudi Arabia: World's Top Arms Buyer, with U.S. Taxpayers Paying for their $1 Billion Weapons System

What a mad crazy world we live in, and it just keeps trucking along. For decades now, the U.S. has been the top arms exporter in the world, making and selling the most weapons and weapons systems for buyers all over. Unsurprisingly, the Middle East has become a prime target for weapons to flow into.

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The Middle east isn't only at the center of the world when we look at the map, they are at the center of arms traffic with 52% of U.S. weapons being shipped to their Middle East customers. The Middle East now accounts for 1/3 of all weapons purchases in the global arms trade, with an 87% increase over the past 5 years.

And Saudi Arabia's purchases have grown 192% over the past 5 years, which now ranks them as the #1 top arms importer in the world. Other Middle Eastern countries rank is the top, which include Egypt, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq.

This is all according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). They measure the traffic by volume of sales, not dollar value of sales. The Western powers are busy making weapons for the Middle East, not just warring with some countries there. I guess they want to help out some of their "allies" who are trying to muscle their way into overtaking other countries.

The U.S. and Europe are selling not only arms, but jets, jeeps and other gear used in wars, where powerful U.S. "allies" are waging war on their neighbors, like is the case with the so-called "Saudi-coalition" and the war on Yemen, among others. SIPRI researcher Pieter Wezeman said:

"Weapons from the US, the UK and France are in high demand in the Gulf, where conflicts and tensions are rife. Russia, France and Germany dramatically increased their arms sales to Egypt in the past five years."

Weapons stores are depleted with the 17 years of war that's been ongoing in the Middle East in regions like Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. The next target is Iran, as the UAE, Saudis and Israel are gearing up for a conflict there.

Saudi Arabia has already received "94 combat jets fitted with cruise missiles and other guided weapons from the US and Britain". The next 5 years will see an additional "98 more jets, 83 tanks and defensive missile systems from the US, 737 armored vehicles from Canada, five frigates from Spain, and Ukrainian short-range ballistic missiles" delivered.

The UAE has also been resupplying, with "missile defense systems, short-range ballistic missiles and about 1,700 armored personnel carriers from the US as well as three Corvettes from France". Qatar has increased arms imports by 225% as they received "German tanks, French combat aircraft and Chinese short-range ballistic missiles", with additional supplies to come in the form of "93 combat aircraft from the US, France and Britain and four frigates from Italy."

Iran, by contrast, only has 0.9% of MIddel East arms imports as they suffer U.S. imperialist embargoes. Meanwhile, their enemies have been stockpiling more advanced weaponry for the war to come, all thanks to their friendly Western allies who have no problem selling them as many weapons as they can buy. The U.S. increased it's sales of arms by 29% over the past five years, with the U.K. by 5.9% by comparison, although 59% of their sales went to the Middle East.

Other than the serious harm being done to those on the receiving end of the weapons, the biggest losers in the West are the taxpayers in the U.S who are paying for a good portion of these so-called "sales". The U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for a $946 million defense system "purchased" by Saudi Arabia. A billion dollars to subsidize a foreign powers military might, paid for by the suckers who pay taxes.

No wonder "wealthy individuals, criminals and terrorists, as well as governments and government agencies (such as the CIA), banks, corporations, hedge funds, international organizations (such as the Vatican) and crime syndicates (such as the Mafia), can stash their money so that they can avoid regulation and oversight and, very often, evade tax." - Robert J. Burrowes

Wezeman points out the "hypocrisy" of the West to continually arm authoritarian regimes who engage in war crimes and abuse their own people. He fails to realize how the U.S. is authoritarian, but of a different degree. It's only because others are blatantly worse that the harsh reality of our own Western nations escapes us.

The world is a stage, and it's all a big fucking joke like the Comedian said in "The Watchmen". A big sham.

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References:

• Saudi Arabia Is the World’s Top Arms Buyer
• Arms sales to Middle East have increased dramatically, new research shows
• US Taxpayers On the Hook for Nearly $1 Billion in Saudi Arabia’s Recent Missile Defense Purchase

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