Selling Weapons Abroad -- Selling War at Home

"Get 'em while they're hot!"

The Times Online (UK) reports that:

American defence contractors are enjoying a bumper year as arms contracts won from foreign governments surge to record levels.

So far this year contracts worth $21.7 billion have been passed to the US Congress for ratification, 76 per cent more than agreed during all of 2005, when America is believed to have lost market share in the global weapons trade to Europe.

America’s foreign military sales (FMS) for the whole of this year are expected to reach a level not seen since 1993 and the end of the first Gulf War.

Though Grandwizard GDub appears to be a poor manager on the surface, he is actually doing a bang-up job increasing profits for his family's business portfolios in oil, finance, security and weapons.

When the rest of the world was begging the US to broker a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, Bush rushed more weapons to the Israelis. This ensured that the Zionists had enough fire power to destroy crucial Lebanese infrastructure and kill hundreds of civilians before international pressure prevailed.

Bush is playing both sides against the middle in South Central Asia by peddling F16s to Pakistan and simultaneously courting their archnemesis India who happens to be shopping for jets of their own. His recent endorsement of New Delhi's nuclear program is widely seen as a ploy to steer the Indians away from their traditional supplier, the Russians, and into the waiting "arms" of the US.

The Times suggests that - like father, like son - Bush is using the battlefields of Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon as showrooms for the latest in US military technology.

There is frequently a rise in military sales after a war as other countries have had an opportunity to see new weaponry in action. This was particularly true in 1993 when countries rushed to buy America’s Patriot missile defence system after witnessing its use in the first Gulf War.

A US government source said: “Conflicts act like a customer demonstration show and we tend to see an upsurge in sales because other countries want to buy American having been impressed by what is available.”

So should we be happy that at least in this one area the rest of the world is itching to buy American?

My friend, Cecilia, expressed her opinion on that subject by protesting the glorification of militarism at Chicago's Air and Water Show this past weekend. It is no accident that US History is defined by its wars. War has been the primary means that the United States has used to build and maintain its land, power, wealth and influence. By demonstrating US weapons of war to America's youth, the nation stands a good chance of breeding another generation of warmongering psychopaths like GDub - nieces and nephews who will give their lives to preserve and propagate their Uncle Sam's military power all over the planet.

Damn the freedoms that are actually worth fighting for. Let's blow something up!!