Selling Of Arms Essay, Research Paper
The Selling of Armaments to Foreign Countries:
Pros and Cons
The wealthy nations sell or give armaments to the poorer nations. If you are not aware of what an armament is, it is a utensil or military set/sets of equipment. Since the end of the civil war, the United States has sold over $100 billion worth of weapons abroad. While other nations reduced their arms sales, the United States has increased its share of the market to 63 percent that is far more than previous years, says Dr. Williams from the University of De Paul. He also goes on to say that this is far more than any other country and that in the future it is going to go up far more than one can predict. The other top arms suppliers to the world are Great Britain, Russia, France, and China, United States being the number 1, of course and Canada coming in at the far position of 9th.
United States is actively engaged in promoting and financing weapon exports through over 6,500 full-time government employees in the Defense, Commerce, and State Department. These sale efforts are motivated by what was deemed to be in the national interests of the countries involved and by profit to the manufactures. In the United States the companies that are most involved are Lockheed Martin, General Motors, General Electric, and Boeing. Not incidentally the top ten arms exporting companies gave $7.87 million in political contributions during the 1996 campaign (fas.com, statistics). These are also some of the leading companies in their respective departments of sales, and that may have an impact on other companies.
Some of the negative consequences of these arm sales are mentioned below. They fan the flames of war, rather than promoting stability in already tense regions. The Third World has become a life-threatening place even for civilians who have no idea a lot of this is taking place in their own backyard , says John Paul the II. One other bad consequence that can arise from the sale of arms to foreign countries is the fact that they can backfire, that is, come back to haunt the seller: for example, the United States has had this happen to them on numerous circumstances as shown in the following two instances. From 1980 to 1988 Iran purchased $17.5 billion in armament from carious countries (not The United States.) and Iraq bought $47.3 billion in armaments, much from The United States (fas.com, statistics). These purchases fueled the war between these two countries, says Thomas Cardarmone Jr, who is the Council for World Education. Leading to Iraq s invasion of Kuwait and the subsequent United States involvement in the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Including the blockade of Iraq and the massive military effort by the United States and other countries to reject further expansion by Iraq and ensure the flow of oil from the Middle East to places around the world. For instance, in the three years following Iraq s invasion on Kuwait, the United States sold more than $38 billion worth of armaments to countries of the Middle East and neighboring countries, most notably $25 billion to Saudi Arabia.
Some of the positive consequences of the arms sales are: most notably is the 100 million jobs that would be effected if we were to not have any selling or trading of arms to foreign countries. People would be left out of a job and would have to go out and try and find a job that could support them and their families if they are to have one. Or even worse, enroll for unemployment. That rate would then affect the people on welfare and it could end up being a chain of events that the United States could not deal with. The poverty level would most likely drop to unseen levels and soon affect every working class. The trading of arms also keeps the talks and social bondage between the nations. The nations meet on a regular schedule and often talk over the phone, setting up conferences nationwide day after day can be hard work, but anything to better the nation as one says William Hartung director of World Policy of Arms Trading and Selling. He also points out the fact that we spend twice as much as any nation, as of 1999, than any other nation in the world, but yet we still manage to pull in more than any other country and we actually make money off of selling our goods to the lower class countries. Maybe one of the most beneficial things of the arms trading and selling, to most people, is the fact that the technology that is found while trying to invent a low cost and inexpensive way of making certain items is beyond that anyone could think of. This enables companies and factories to run a lot smother and there assembly lines can have adjustments made to them to make them run quicker and more sufficient, that will eventually cut the cost of the item and make it cheaper for all of the consumers and shoppers.
Throughout this paper I show some of that facts that are involved in this situation and the pros and cons. This is all presented to you for your information. I am not looking to install an opinion on you, or tell you what side to take. I am just hoping that with this information you can have a much better knowledge of what is going on. If you decide to take a side on what is right, or what is wrong than so be it, those are not my intentions.
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