20 Billion in US arms to Middle East

The whole idea is to maintain a 'balance of power' in the region with Iran clearly on the rise militarily. Although I fail to see how Iran is a threat to Saudi (which has a much more modern military AND the largest defense expenditure in the region), but I can understand the mini Gulf states (Kuwait, Qatar and UAE, primarily) being threatened by the rising Persian power.

As far as Egypt and Israel, it's a continuation of the same old policy of military/financial aid in exchange for improved relations between the two neighboring states.

It makes sense as far as maintaining/strengthening U.S. interests in the region...

EDIT: The "Osama must be overjoyed" comment only highlights your own ignorance of the region. Osama advocates the overthrow of every single one of those regimes and replacing them with a Taliban-style government that's vehemently anti-Western. So it's the other way around: Osama must be pissed.

 

D&D anyone?

"Osama is overjoyed".......not only is he probably dead, but Osama prolly doesnt want this

 

oh crap. you've already been called out on that. my bad

 

This is hard for me to stomach and makes me sick. But I guess we must accept that the sorry Saudi royal family is the best alternative there is in Saudi Arabia, which means we must support them.