A huge new arms deal is near, providing very advanced U.S weapons to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf monarchies. The deal is reported (New York Times, The Guardian) to total $ 20. In the receiving countries, there will be much more outlays for infrastructure, facilities, training, etc, contracts worth many more billions of dollars. Another side of the deal is increased military aid to Israe. Most Arab media in the Gulf concentrated on a "25% increase" in aid to Israel and ignored the Gulf weapons purchases.

This does not mean that the peoples of these countries can feel secure and rest easy now- but it might make a very few of them richer. It is not clear what is the purpose of these huge deals: the Gulf states, although they live in a notoriously dangerous neighborhood, have proven consistently that they are incapable of defending themselves without direct United States help. Several of these countries rely on foreign military personnel, especially Pakistani pilots to fly their warplanes. Yet these countries spend a higher percentage of their GDP (and GNP) on military expenditure than most other nations. There is always, of course, the lucrative by-product of these deals: some prince or shaikh always ends up with hundreds of millions of dollars in commissions ( or bribes depending on the relevant laws). Or perhaps it is not exactly a by-product, perhaps the commissions (and the bribes) are the goal.

The most famous case of arms commissions was investigated for being illegal (a bribe) by the British SFO, before being killed last spring by the Tony Blair government. That one involved Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Head of Saudi National Security and part-time national security adviser to the Bush administration. He was reported by British media to have received only GBP 1 billion (a cool $2 billions). Now the prince can retire comfortably- no need to earn his living by advising the Bush administration on world affairs.

The sale may face some difficulties in the Senate for two reasons: possible Israeli reservations and recent U.S. disclosures that the Saudis not only send jihadist terrorists to Iraq, but also finance and arm them. Recent reports are gradually drawing a picture of what many have suspected for several years: that someone with deep pockets is financing some of the terrorists in Iraq, as was reported on this site some time ago.

Neverheless, the deal will eventually go through.

Iraq beat Saudi Arabia yesterday to win the Asian Cup in soccer (football). It was a victory in spite of being understaffed, in exile, and under-funded. This is ominous for the Saudi's Brazilian coach (trainer). The Saudi princelings who always run the soccer federation and the national team have the habit of quickly firing a coach when the team underperforms. The average tenure for a coach during the past eleven years has been less than a year, which gives a good idea how much soccer bang do they get for their bucks. But there may be some hope for the coach: with the next world cup only two and a half years away, and qualifiers around the corner, changing the coach now would be stupid, perhaps it is better to sack the management, i.e their highnesses.
Most likely, they will keep the coach until they either fail to qualify for the World Cup, or get knocked out in the first round...then it is hasta la vista baby.

Iraqi WTF?
Gulf media report that 45 people, claiming to be tribal shaikhs in southern Iraq, have declared an "autonomous government" for that region. There is to be a legislature and regional security forces. The shaikhs asserted their committment to one Iraqi state, but not "one supported by the occupation". None of the names mentioned by the group are involved in Iraqi politics currently, and it is not clear how this new "idea" relates to the original proposal of SCIRI (now SICI) chief Abdulaziz al-Hakeem for regional autonomy. The shaikhs did not refer to the Biden-Gelb ideas on confederation either- it is possible they never heard of either Biden or Gelb- perhaps they do not read the NY Times or Washington Post on a daily basis.

Cheers
Mohammed