pump up the saudi arms volume

Back when the "Saudi arms deal" tickled $20 bills, thoughtful folks gave pause, and for rightful good reason. That was under Bush. Now, in the midst of an again faltering "economy," Obama has pushed the deal to $60 billion with nary a peep. Given the obvious economic distress the United States is currently suffering, even the Israelis are making no fuss.

The Obama administration is set to notify Congress of plans to offer advanced aircraft to Saudi Arabia worth up to $60 billion, the largest U.S. arms deal ever, and is in talks with the kingdom about potential naval and missile-defense upgrades that could be worth tens of billions of dollars more.

The administration plans to tout the $60 billion package as a major job creator—supporting at least 75,000 jobs, according to company estimates—and sees the sale of advanced fighter jets and military helicopters to key Middle Eastern ally Riyadh as part of a broader policy aimed at shoring up Arab allies against Iran.

Iran, shmearan. The weapons industry in now one of the sole job growth industries in the US. Certainly, it is the major "good jobs" growth industry.

If this is not what America has become, it appears to be on the path of being both a blunt instrument, and the global supplier of blunt instruments. A weapons mill for the world.

It is a weapons mill society consisting of, presumably, "farmers", possibly just Cargill and Monsanto, who grow some sort of "food", while those not fighting wars in foreign lands are busy in the homeland, making weapons in order to sell weapons to those parts of the world in which, oddly enough, the United States finds itself continually fighting. Of course, once engaged in said and now restive regions, America's war fighters get to amp up the gun fun and blow all sorts of expensive ordinance all over those very same places. Production of these weapons is good the for the economy. More weapons, better economy.

The US is drifting into weapons mill addiction, a place where the only "good jobs" prospect in the country lie in making weapons for second and third world tinpot kingdoms, balkanized satrapies, and newly minted NATO nations in Eastern Europe, among other vainglorious and idle fools. Looks that way, don't it? Making anything else other than weapons has been pretty much shipped out. And the "good jobs" arise in the shadow of a long war.

The swirl continues ...