7, April 2015 US
arming repressive governments
New figures show President Obama has overseen a major
increase in weapons sales since taking office - far exceeding those under
President George W. Bush.
Most troubling is weapon exports, amounting to a staggering
60%, to the most repressive governments in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf
States. According to William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Project
at the Center for International Policy, and author of "Prophets of War:
Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex,"the
major export of terrorism in the world, Saudi Arabia tops the list at $46
billion in new agreements. Other recipients, Egypt, Bahrain have a long history
of crushing pro-democracy aspirations of their people.
Often US weapons are seized by terror groups like ISIS
when Iraqi forces retreated in large numbers. U.S. armed rebels in Syria armed
by the CIA, went over to join ISIS. $500 million of
weapons are still unaccounted for in Yemen.
Largely unconcerned with the human toll, companies like
Lockheed are only concerned with increasing their profits and regard weapons
sales as positive "growth markets”.
It is tragic that the Obama administration has not lived
up the principles of the Arms Trade Treaty to which the US is a signatory and
only plays lip service to human rights violations and promoting democracy. It
is time civil society opposes the un-Godly actions of our government.
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