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AMERICAN INSTRUCTOR
briefs an lranian Air Force pilot in the operation
of an American-built helicopter purchased recently by lran.
some unexpected side etrects of U.S.
arms sales . The repon warned that
" the U.S. assumes the obligation of
long-term support for the equip–
ment it has sold. The pu rchaser be–
comes dependen! on the U.S. in
much the same manner as a local
au tomobile dea ler becomes depen –
dent on Detroit.' '
fn other words. U.S. technicians
- both military personnel and civil–
ian defen se contracto rs - are
needed by the thousands over long
periods of time to help maintain
and operare the highly sophisticated
equi pment being sold to nonindus–
lrial nations. which in many cases
lack the know-how to use the weap–
ons they are buying.
Much of the equipment being
sold by the Pentagon is so complex
that even the U.S. military is having
difficult y keepin g its own forces op–
erational.
lran is a case in point. The Shah
of lran. striving to build the largest
military machine in the Midd le
East, has purchased over
$10
b.ill ion
wort h of the latest-model military
ha rdware from the United States
ince 1972- and that is apparently
just the beginning. The Shah has
declared his intention to make fran
milita rily as s trong in ten years as
The
PLAIN TRUTH October 1976 ,
France, Britain. and West Germany
are today. He says he needs
1hree
·
times
as many wcapons as he now
ha s to be adequate ly equipped
against his neighboring enemies.
Following closely on the hecls of
the U.S. arms de liveries to Iran. a
contingent of ove r 20.000 American
technicians has descended upon tha t
nation to train its a rmed forces in
thc use of their sophisticated new
weapons. The Senate repon projects
that by 1980. that number could
easily exceed 50.000.
Similar situations exist in ot her
nations being suppli ed by the U.S.
Severa! thousand American civilian
personnel a re already in Saudi
Arabia. with many more to come as
deliveries are made on recently
signed arms cont racts with that na–
tion.
To Fight or Not to Fight
Wit h the U.S. now supplying poten–
tia! adversaries. the ou tbreak of war
anywhe re in the Middle East wou ld
pose some se ri ous di lemmas for
Washington decision makers.
Would the U.S. a ll ow its tech–
n icia ns lo rema in in dependen!
client countries and participare in
the host ilities? Th e Senate study re–
vcaled that Jran. for example, cou ld
not go to war with its new weaponry
"without U.S. support on a day-to–
day basis.'' The same is probably
also true for Saudi Arabia and will
increasingly become the case with
many other Middle Eastern na tioos
as more and more U.S. arms ftow in .
If the U.S. reneged on its com–
mitments to keep the arms opera–
tional during host ilit ies. would the
res ident American technicians be
held hostage? And if so, how would
the Pen tagon react?
And wha t would Washington do
when warri ng client states began
clamoring for ammuni t ion ship–
ments. replacemen t pans, and other
critica! supplies?
The failure of Wash ington to
honor commitmen ts and deliver e -
sential supplies to its arms custom–
ers would shatter their confidence in
the U.S. and al mos t certainly result
in a dramatic upswing in Soviet
in–
ftu~n ce
and arms peddling in the
regwn .
The Shah of Iran states th e di–
lemma succinctly: "As far as a rms
sales go, there are plen ty of places to
buy. The quest ion is. can you. the
United States, afford to lose lran [or
other Mideast clients] either as a
ti:iend or as a customer?"
The consequences of U.S . weap–
ons sales to the Middle East are
difficult to calculatc. With no inter–
nationa l agreement on the horizon
to restrict a rms sales to the area .
many Mideast ana lysts in Washing–
ton fecl diplomatic acti on to aven
war is the on ly a lterna ti ve if th e
U.S. is to avoid being dragged into a
future Mideast conft ict.
But with no Arab-lsraeli peace
settlement at hand and tensions
con tinuing elscwhere in the Middle
East, " th e continued unrest raincd
sale of armaments.' ' in the words of
SIPRL ' ·can only exacerba te an al–
ready dange rous situ ation."
For over 40 years.
The Plai11
Trurh
ha s continu ally urged i ts
readers to keep their eyes on th e
Middle East. Bible prophecy in–
dica res that region wi ll soon become
the prime focal point of world atten–
tion - and the tinderbox of a global
conflict which will clímax in the
end-time ba ttle of Annageddon .
The escalating arms race now under
way is setting the stage for those
very even ts!
o
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