With White House Push, U.S. Arms Sales Jump

With White House Push, U.S. Arms Sales Jump

www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is pushing through a broad array of foreign weapons deals as it seeks to rearm Iraq and Afghanistan, contain North Korea and Iran, and solidify ties with onetime Russian allies.

From tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to missiles, remotely piloted aircraft and even warships, the Department of Defense has agreed so far this fiscal year to sell or transfer more than $32 billion in weapons and other military equipment to foreign governments, compared with $12 billion in 2005.

The trend, which started in 2006, is most pronounced in the Middle East, but it reaches into northern Africa, Asia, Latin America, Europe and even Canada, through dozens of deals that senior Bush administration officials say they are confident will both tighten military alliances and combat terrorism.

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Good business for weapons manufacturers and oil companies during the Bush administration.

Why not arm everyone?

Lets have war everywhere!

“This is not about being gunrunners,” said Bruce S. Lemkin, the Air Force deputy under secretary who is helping to coordinate many of the biggest sales. “This is about building a more secure world.”

No, sir, this is about making sure there are wars to profit from. This is about building a more violent world.



www.nytimes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 14-9-2008 by The_Alarmist2012]

well, the US has outsourced, NAFTA'ed, offshored, and sold off all its industrial base... and all thats left for global wide business is the Arms/Weapons Industry



betcha that the OPEC Gulf states are getting oodles of armaments, jets & missile shields as part of the Saudi secret deal to strengthen the dollar by lowering the cost of oil.



all the other noted arms sales, across the world, are 'business as usual'

Once again it is the hard working American taxpayers who will in most cases pay for these arms "sales"

From the article...

About 60 countries get annual military aid from the United States, $4.5 billion a year, to help them buy American weapons. Israel and Egypt receive more than 80 percent of that aid. The United States has also recently given Iraq and Afghanistan large amounts of weapons and other equipment and has begun to train fledgling military units at no charge; this assistance is included in the tally of foreign sales. But most arms exports are paid for by the purchasers without United States financing.

We "sell" them the weapons and through military financial aid pay for them. The key profiteers would be the weapons manufacturers/contractors, of course at the expense of the American people through collected taxes.

Think about that... I want you to buy my gun, so I steal money, then give you the money to pay for it?