U.S. Is No. 1 in Arms Sales to Developing Nations
Of all the ways to stand out on the world stage, this news about America's global leadership surely does not represent the best possible distinction it could have earned: According to a congressional study released Monday, the U.S. beat out Russia and Britain to become the top seller of weapons to developing nations such as India and Pakistan in 2006.Of all the ways to stand out on the world stage, this news about America’s global leadership surely does not represent the best possible distinction it could have earned: According to a congressional study released Monday, the U.S. beat out Russia and Britain to become the top seller of weapons to developing nations such as India and Pakistan in 2006.
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The report, “Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations,” was produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress, and presents a number of interesting observations linking arms sales and global politics. For example, Russia has been a major supplier of weapons to Iran in past years, including a $700 million deal for surface-to-air missiles in 2005.
But anxieties over Iran’s nuclear program can be seen as having deterred Moscow from concluding significant new conventional arms deals with Iran in 2006, deals that could be viewed as overly provocative while the Security Council debates new sanctions on Iran.
At the same time, though, Russia continues to nurture an arms-trade relationship that is deeply disturbing to the Bush administration, by signing weapons deals with oil-rich Venezuela and its anti-American leader, Hugo Chávez.
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The most recent manifestation of the urge to engage in an “arms race” will no doubt create more insecurity in an already unstable world.
A deep-seated denial about the colonial ideology undergirding gun rights in the U.S. has hampered the left's approach to arms control.
Since at least 2001, the Saudis and Israelis have successfully reframed American policy in the Greater Middle East, and the results have been disastrous.
The president's arms sales are meant to promote pork-barrel politics, while pumping up the profits of U.S. weapons manufacturers. As for human rights or human lives, who cares?
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