America is, by far, the largest arms exporter on the planet. (Just in case you forgot)

[Poll_Blind]

From the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest_arms_exporters">Arms Industry page at Wikipedia:


We didn't get to number 1 on that list by accident: Just about everything America does foreign policy-wise involves, in ways obvious or not-so-obvious, the sales of weaponry. When I was much younger, I recall reading a book which briefly touched on the power which http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_%28industrialist%29">robber barons had over America at one time. The older I get, the less-convinced I am that using the past-tense is appropriate.

Whether it's banking interests and financial swindles or industry-supported military adventurism, I think this Sunday afternoon it's worth considering, if only for a moment, that very little has changed over the decades in regards to the hows and whys of America's place in the world and our place in America.

While the swindles or weaponry are updated to reflect a modern context, the playbook and the moves have not changed much in a very long time.

PB

[spanone]

1. the military industrial complex is not stupid.

[newfie11]

2. good for business ya know

:sarcasm:

[Philosopher King]

3. Here is another way of looking at it.

Supplying our allies with the means to defend themselves, should enable the US to avoid engaging ourselves in unnecessary wars. In the event that a friendly nation turns hostile, we would have the ability to deny them the means to maintain their equipment by withholding replacement components.

We should also withhold our most advanced technologies, and that would allow us to maintain a tactical advantage should we ever find ourselves looking at the "wrong end of the gun."

Finally, if US companies are exporting arms, US workers will be building them.