Throwing a Dog to Bone Saw

The excited commentary following the news that Saudi ruler Mohammed Bone Saw is to be allowed to buy an unspecified number of F-35s has been a textbook example of cognitive dissonance in action. Everyone should know the plane is a total dog: vastly over budget, years late, frequently inoperable due to maintenance issues, grossly deficient in exercising some of its designated missions and, overall, incapable of fulfilling its original design requirements. So why then has there been so much excitement over Saudi Arabia acquiring “America’s most advanced fighter jet” and thereby supposedly nullifying Israel’s “qualitative edge” in the mid-east military equation?

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Spoils of War to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.