Merchants of War

“The U.S. dominates this international arms market, supplying over half of all arms exports in 1999, four times more than the second largest supplier. U.S. weapons sales help outfit non-democratic regimes, soldiers who commit gross human rights abuses against their citizens and citizens of other countries, and forces in instable regions on the verge of, middle of, or recovering from conflict.”

-Federation of American Scientists

War. We live in an age where war is a very controversial topic, a recent example of such being the War on Terror in the Middle East. We all know how the wars start: attacks, political issues, rights for trade, territorial disputes, etc.; but do most Americans know what continues and feeds them? Shockingly (well, not really), the American Government is one of the main driving forces behind war between nations. How? It’s not the troops stationed there for military support. Rather, it’s the sale of ammunition, military vehicles, and weapons that happens all the time between our government and other nations. Sometimes with known terrorist organizations as well.

I can imagine that it strikes the American people as odd that their tax dollars are being used to build weapons that are sold in the Middle East, and end up in the hands of a terrorist who uses it to kill American soldiers. Hard to believe? Here’s an example from not too long ago. July 2007, the US congress plans an arms sale worth about $20 billion dollars to Saudi Arabia. The contents of the package include advanced weaponry, missile guidance systems, upgraded fighter jets, and naval ships. The purpose of this sale? To help Saudi Arabia “counter the regional threat posed by Iran.” In other words, fuel the ongoing war. Side effect of this sale? Neighboring Israel gets a little nervous, seeing as the US promised to help them maintain the top military power in the Middle East. How does the US answer? Pledge $30 billion dollars of military aid. There are so many wrong things that happened here, that I cant imagine anybody can see how these two deals help heal the Middle East, let alone the world. I’m sure that there would have been better ways to use that money; $50 billion dollars is no small sum.

The US hasn’t been selling weapons to other countries in only just these past years of war, its been going on for quite a while now. Yes, there are people out there who argue that the US only sells weapons to ally countries and “good causes” Well, what was once an ally country could very well be an enemy country just the next week. Look at this quote from a report by the Centre for Defense in 2001.

“There are 28 terrorist groups currently operating in 18 countries, according to the State Department’s bi-annual list of active foreign terrorist organizations…. In the period of 1990-1999, the United States supplied 16 of the 18 countries on the State Department list with arms… In addition, the U.S. military (and the CIA) has trained the forces of many of these 18 countries in U.S. war fighting tactics, in some cases including individuals now involved in terrorism.”