[lit-ideas] Re: Hitchens on Moore's flick
- From: John McCreery <mccreery@xxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 13:06:55 +0900
On 2004/07/02, at 2:50, JulieReneB@xxxxxxx wrote:
> I have never been able to understand this. Is there any coherent
> explanation??
There are very large sums of money to be made by selling armaments to
currently "friendly" countries that may later become our enemies. Iraq
is an excellent example. As, for example, is Iran or Saudi Arabia.
Clarke's _Against All Enemies_ and Unger's _House of Bush, House of
Saud_ document several instances.
While it doesn't involve countries per se, one particularly disturbing
example was the sale of Stinger missiles and other bits of nastiness to
Mujaheddin (including Osama Bin Laden) who were fighting the USSR in
Afghanistan. Besides the economic benefits to arms suppliers, there was
the national security interest articulated by Zbignew Brezinski, "We'll
give the USSR, its own Vietnam!" As Clarke notes, however, sales
continued uninterrupted for quite a while after the USSR accepted
defeat and withdrew. Once the floodgates were open, they were hard to
close again.
Cheers,
John
John L. McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd.
55-13-202 Miyagaya, Nishi-ku
Yokohama, Japan 220-0006
Tel 81-45-314-9324
Email mccreery@xxxxxxx
"Making Symbols is Our Business"
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