In a surprise move the Bush administration has announced the planned sale of $20 billion in advanced arms to Iran. The weapons included the proposed arms sale include 500- and 2000 pound satellite-guided JDAM bombs. Israel has raised concerns about the Iranians having that kind of precision-strike capability, "so the United States will discuss basing the weapons as far away from Israel as possible," a Bush administration official said. In addition, the United States will sell Iran naval vessels, advanced versions of air-to-air missiles, and advanced Patriot anti-aircraft missiles. These advanced missiles will make it even more difficult for Israel to strike Iran to preempt an attack.
The Bush administration's move is surprising for many reasons, not least of which is Iran's role in the 9/11 attacks. It is of course well known that of the nineteen 9/11 attackers, a no less than fifteen of them were Iranians. A large proportion of the leadership of al-Quaeda are, of course, Persian Shiites from Iran.
Of course, if Iran's involvement in 9/11 weren't troubling enough, it has also been recently shown that nearly half of all the al-Quaeda fighters captured by the United States in Iraq are of Iranian nationality. Apparently these Iranian fighters come across the border to participate in suicide bombing attacks. In the last six months, such bombings--many carried out by Iranians--have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.
Okay, stop. Everything I've written above this line is untrue.
Here's the truth. In fact, the Bush administration is planning a massive arms sale to Saudi Arabia.[1] It was Saudi Arabians who masterminded 9/11 and provided fifteen of the nineteen attackers.[2] It is Saudi Arabia that continues to funnel weapons and cash to Iraqi insurgents and Saudi Arabia provides almost half the al-Quaeda volunteers now in Iraq, including many suicide bombers.
That the Bush administration would provide JDAMs to a known sponsor of terrorism, one that sits within easy range of Israel, is frankly mind-blowing.[3] Exactly what do you have to do in order to be considered a bad risk for arms sales?
Cross posted from The Richmond Democrat.