Good News From the Middle East, (If You're an Arms Merchant)

"In a typical sale, the U.S. government is involved every step of the way. The Pentagon often does assessments of an allied nation’s armed forces in order to tell them what they “need” — and of course what they always need is billions of dollars in new U.S.-supplied equipment. Then the Pentagon helps negotiate the terms of the deal, notifies Congress of its details and collects the funds from the foreign buyer, which it then gives to the U.S. supplier in the form of a defense contract."