Saturday, July 22, 2006

U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis

No wonder Bush Inc. don't want an early end to the conflict, they already have orders for more bombs... supply and demand is key I suppose, lives comes a dim second:

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2006/07/us_speeds_up_bomb_delivery_for_the_israelis_/

Israel is running out of bunker buster bombs, having expended several tons in Lebanon. The United States is pitching in with a new shipment.
The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday. The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.
The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.
[…]
One American official said the shipment should not be compared to the kind of an “emergency resupply” of dwindling Israeli stockpiles that was provided during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when an American military airlift helped Israel recover from early Arab victories.
[…]
Pentagon and military officials declined to describe in detail the size and contents of the shipment to Israel, and they would not say whether the munitions were being shipped by cargo aircraft or some other means. But an arms-sale package approved last year provides authority for Israel to purchase from the United States as many as 100 GBU-28’s, which are 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs intended to destroy concrete bunkers. The package also provides for selling satellite-guided munitions. An announcement in 2005 that Israel was eligible to buy the “bunker buster” weapons described the GBU-28 as “a special weapon that was developed for penetrating hardened command centers located deep underground.” The document added, “The Israeli Air Force will use these GBU-28’s on their F-15 aircraft.”
This continues the administration’s strategy of clearly picking sides in this conflict, which is in marked contrast to American policy over the last 30-odd years of at least attempting to play the role of neutral arbiter. Given how spectacularly unsuccessful that proved to be–both in terms of convincing the Arabs we weren’t backing the Israelis and at achieving lasting peace–maybe a new strategy is called for.

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