Weapons to the last penny
Al-Rai’s recent headline about the goals of US president Donald Trump’s visit to the region brought nothing new. The president will ask GCC states for the price of US protection, be that price called as a ‘royalty’ or ‘imperialist Jizya’ which will eventually keep draining the region out to the last penny in its financial assets.
According to the news report, Trump will discuss the danger of IS and Iran with regional leaders as the US administration considers Iran as part of the problem rather than part of the solution; which completely matches the Israeli view. The US administration also looks forward to normalizing relations between GCC states and Israel and the more its talks about Iranian threats, the more the chances to normalize. Therefore, Iran will be the historic justification of GCC normalization with Israel; which seems not so far ahead now.
GCC states are the most generous on spending on armament worldwide and it seems that the fall of oil prices has not affected the volume of weapons’ deals, as if this was a holy and sacred non-negotiable thing that tolerates no opposing opinion such as the general case in our countries. During his presidential election campaign, Trump expressed intentions to urge GCC states to ‘pay the price for protection’ and viewed the matter as a ‘fair demand because this is a favor and favors have prices.’
Well, it is noteworthy here to mention that the mafia also provides protection and asks the weak for royalties in return for such protection. In most cases, the protection the mafia provides is from a menace it has itself created and staged. Before Trump’s presidency, as symbol of neo-rightists, the issue of draining up surpluses made by GCC states from international oil prices was nothing new in US and Western policies as such surpluses are usually re-invested in the United States and the West or devoured as prices of weapons’ deals made for astronomical figures.
In one of his lectures, Noam Chomsky said that opinion polls show that the majority of Arab people believe that the worst threats come from Israel and its policies; not from Iran. However, regardless of the source of such threats, the future will definitely not be beautiful because economic insolvency is inevitable and regional wars that have been draining Arab blood and funds seem to be expanding without solutions as long as there are no debates or dialogues amongst regional states, which leave the Zionist State as the greatest beneficiary. —Translated by Kuwait Times