Mideast Arms Sales Not So Bad

Nor do Western policymakers believe that their arms sales have proved to be matches to light waiting Mideast conflagrations. Indeed, they think the contrary. Apart from Saddam Hussein's attacks on Iran and Kuwait many years ago, they calculate that their arms sales have helped keep the peace by maintaining various balances of power. The calculus in Washington, for example, is that the massive sales to states on the Arabian Peninsula like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, as well as sales to Egypt, contribute to deterring Iran. That is the main justification for the sales by the State Department. It is backed up by the judgment of regional experts who say Iran is well aware that America's Sunni Arab allies on the Arabian peninsula have clear air and missile superiority in the Gulf.