Instead of Bombing Dictators, Stop Selling Them Bombs

[Charleston Chew]

Source: Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis

In 2009 alone, European governments - including Britain and France - sold Libya more than $470 million worth of weapons, including fighter jets, guns and bombs. And before it started calling for regime change, the Obama administration was working to provide the Libyan dictator another $77 million in weapons, on top of the $17 million it provided in 2009 and the $46 million the Bush administration provided in 2008.

Meanwhile, for dictatorial regimes in Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, US support continues to this day. On Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even gave the US stamp of approval to the brutal crackdown on protesters in Bahrain, saying the country's authoritarian rulers "obviously" had the "sovereign right" to invite troops from Saudi Arabia to occupy their country and carry out human rights abuses, including attacks on injured protesters as they lay in their hospital beds.

In Yemen, which has received more than $300 million in military aid from the US over the last five years, the Obama administration continues to support corrupt thug and president-for-life Ali Abdullah Saleh, who recently ordered a massacre of more than 50 of his own citizens who dared protest his rule. And this support has allowed the US to carry out its own massacres under the auspices of the war on terror, with one American bombing raid last year taking out 41 Yemeni civilians, including 14 women and 21 children, according to Amnesty International.

Rather than engage in cruise-missile liberalism, Obama could save lives by immediately ending support for these brutal regimes. But for US administrations, both Democratic and Republican, arms sales appear to trump liberation. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute documented that Washington accounted for 54 percent of arms sales to Persian Gulf states between 2005 and 2009.


Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/instead-bombing-dictators-stop-selling-them-bombs68680

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[fasttense]

1. Without the exportation of arms and weapons, the US really has

not export industries.

[paparush]

3. Exactly. NY Times summarized this nicely. Military vs non Military Durable Goods

[indimuse]

2. KNR! n/t

[Scuba]

4. But without military sales, our economy would crumble....

...any dollars for nurses, teachers and firefighters will just be kept in the vault with all their other filthy lucre.


Dollars for bombs go right back in the economy, because the people who own the bomb-making factories live paycheck to paycheck.

[L. Coyote]

18. Yes, by Friday at 9 pm, that money has been spent at the local grocer and shoe store

[Rebubula]

5. Simple and Effective.

I have nothing to add - great piece.

[geckosfeet]

6. Stop making sense

[liberal N proud]

7. Now there is a concept

Make sense but someone can't get rich off of that idea so we will continue to create our own enemies.

You see it is a multi profit system, our defense companies build the bombs and airplanes to sell the the dictators who in turn will misuse them and become tyrants (become may a little over stating it). They turn out to be our enemies which brings further profit to the defense companies who have to build the bombs and planes for our military to bomb the shit out the regimes we created.

And if we are lucky, there is a third profit in this scenario, we would need to build military bases in these countries so we can keep them in check for the next 1000 years.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[think4yourself]

9. Right on.

See Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarack, and now, Gaddafi.

It all comes back to us- CIA or George HW Bush.

[Blue_Tires]

22. Profiteers ALWAYS know how to work both sides of the street...

[Nitram]

8. profit

Don't be silly. What would happen to our military-industrial complex if we stopped selling weapons to future targets?

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

15. Well, they could build solar panels.

:think:

[Overseas]

10. K&R.

That is the sad truth and has been for far too long.

[athenasatanjesus]

11. Not trying to make a profit is socialism.

And socialism is nazism.

[Brewman_Jax]

12. I found this cartoon

The USA's schizophrenic foreign policy has to stop.

[randr]

13. Do you want to start a fight with the gun control crowd?

[MineralMan]

14. The very first political writing I ever did was on that topic.

It was 1959, and I was a freshman in a small-town California high school. We were assigned to write a one-page essay on any topic. I wrote an essay about the premise that the nations of the world should agree not to sell arms to any other nation. Every nation would have to create it's own armaments. The idea was that this would end or severely limit hostilities between nations that did not have the capacity to make such weapons. Got an A+ from the teacher, who advised me to send it to the local newspaper as a letter to the editor. I did, and it was printed. My very first publication.

I still think it's a good idea.

[harmonicon]

20. I agree.

I posted basically the same response before reading yours. How/why this is never discussed is baffling. .... of course I know why it's not suggested by most media or government, but why it's not a major trope amongst the global left is beyond me.

[NeedleCast]

16. That would work great if everyone else stopped selling them bombs too

The huge majority of Libya's weapons are Russian and Chinese bought. How does Medea propose we get those countries to stop selling weapons?

[sabrina 1]

23. I'm sure there is something the Russians and the Chinese

are getting from us that could be used as bargaining chips.

The truth is no one wants to stop the arms business, it is far too profitable.

And if we didn't start wars every once in a while with our customers, the arms trade would die.

War is profitable. We could profit from developing alternative energy eg.

[L. Coyote]

17. America = Funneling money from taxpayer pockets to rich corporate owners via human rights abusers

Instead of firing teachers, quit giving billions to brutal governments with the stipulation that they must use the money to enrich an American defense corporation.

[suffragette]

21. Tax payers also fund the R&D for development of the weapons

We lose at each step of the equation.

K&R

[harmonicon]

19. I couldn't agree more.

I think it should be against international law for any country to export arms.

[Bozita]

24. Does that include Freedom Bombs?

[Charleston Chew]

25. why is this locked?

why is DU comparable to a fraternity hazing?


frat boys at summer camp, no doubt

[quaker bill]

26. always well advised

but once you or someone has sold them bombs, what then?

[midnight]

27. What a great idea.... Stop selling dictators bombs...

[Amonester]

28. Excellent idea. Indubitably the right thing to do! Alas...

... chunks of MONEY from these sales end up in the politicians "campaign contributions, propaganda, and all that jazz"

They're all the same. Swiss Banks are filled to the top with this sh*t (gold bars included).

[Catherina]

29. Really? What a concept. Rec'd. Strongly rec'd. b/t