Senate votes to support Trump's weapons sale to Saudi Arabia

The Wichita Eagle ^ | June 13, 2017 | Richard Lardner, The Associated Press

[2ndDivisionVet]

The Senate on Tuesday narrowly turned back a bipartisan bid to rebuke Saudi Arabia and reject President Donald Trump's plan to sell the kingdom more than $500 million in precision-guided munitions, sparing the new Republican administration an embarrassing defeat.

The vote Tuesday was 53-47, clearing the way for the sale to be finalized. The precision munitions are part of Trump's proposed $110 billion arms package to Riyadh, which the administration said would create U.S. jobs while also improving a key ally's military capability.

But opponents of the deal, led by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have been sharply critical of Riyadh's role in Yemen's civil war and the kingdom's human rights abuses. They said they feared the sophisticated weapons could be used in the conflict against Yemeni civilians.....

[Parley Baer]

I have no problems with this.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
FReepers, it's time to wrap up this FReep-a-thon.  Lets do it...

President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America

Ramirez political cartoon: Hungry Media LARGE VERSION 06/10/2017: LINK  LINK to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).

Please join the monthlies, an automated and the best way to help support Free Republic.  If you opt not to join the automated monthly support program, please consider joining the One One Done project.  LINK

FReepers, 94.10% of the Second Quarter FReep-a-thon goal has been met.  Click above and pencil in your donation now.  Please folks, lets end this FReepathon.  Thank you!
...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $792.00 to 95.00%

[Sam Gamgee]

What do the Saudis need all these conventional weapons for? Can they really fly these planes? Do they have trained pilots for fighter planes?

[edie1960]

http://www.tigerdroppings.com/rant/politics/huge-news-palestinians-agree-to-stop-paying-terrorist-families/70634530/

More great news!!!
God Bless President Trump!!!
Winning!!!
Just a damn shame all of this is getting eclipsed by all the Sessions’ testimony!

[2ndDivisionVet]

Um, Iran.

[Ray76]

Arming Wahhabis. What could go wrong?

[silverleaf]

I hope the arabs cut off their money to those who voted against this

That Will help drain some of the swamp

Not that i am a fan of selling military toys to saudi but much of the opposition was just anti Trumo

[silverleaf]

No no and thats why this was a good deal for us
Better have our contractors over there than Chinese or Russians

[Signalman]

What’s going on with health care and tax reform? Those are the two big ones.

If the Congress doesn’t get off their collective asses and pass this before the recess, so the Pres. can sign them, it’s going to be a tough mid-term for the GOP.

[Sam Gamgee]

Otherwise we just selling them a bunch of shite they don’t need or know how to use? I mean its a weapons merchant’s dream.

[LS]

“Narrowly,” as in Trump wins again.

[Nero Germanicus]

The Saudis buy weapons from the Russians, the Chinese, and from the U.S. The Chinese are building a new military drone factory in Saudi.
However the sheer size of this new arms deal far eclipses anything the Russians or the Chinese can negotiate. This will be the largest arms sale in the history of the Republic.

[butlerweave]

Does Saudi Arabia have the cash to pay ?

[Bookshelf]

The Houthis are now shelling southern Saudi Arabia, and have even fired a missile into Riyadh. Yeah, I know, the poor Yemenis:
Yemen population 26.8 million (80% adult males armed)
Saudi Arabia pop. 31.5 million0 (25% adult males armed)

[Nero Germanicus]

Way, way more than enough. This deal is a drop in the Saudi money bucket.
Consider:
The world’s largest oil exporter known formally as the government-owned Saudi Arabian Oil Co. holds a concession to pump the kingdom’s oil and gas, and a stake in that business is what the Saudi government will sell in an Initial Public stock Offering (IPO) of “not far from 5 percent” of company shares in 2018. Analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and Rystad Energy AS said that the IPO has a potential market value of more than $1 trillion.
The bottom line is that the minute Saudi Oil goes public, it becomes the richest publicly traded company on the planet, surpassing Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook.

[trebb]

They have Iran, and like the rest, ISIS to contend with. You’d be surprised how many Saudi officers are walking around US Air bases and getting secure communications/pilot and other training....

[Sam Gamgee]

Fair enough. But considering it was Saudis who murdered 3000 people on 911, I wonder why I should care about their well being.

[Sam Gamgee]

I guess my question had an answer of my own. I still contend the Saudis biggest threat is a Wahhabi uprising within its own border, by which tanks and fighters will be useless.

[Bookshelf]

Considering it was Americans who murdered more than 100,000 people at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I wonder why anyone should care about our well being. You see how this game is played?