John Whitehead's Commentary

"There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other eleven?"--Yuri Orlov

In the 2005 film Lord of War, jet-setting arms dealer Yuri Orlov, played by Nicolas Cage, has nebulous yet very real connections with the U.S. government. In light of the massive use of arms employed in the present Israeli-Lebanon war, the fictional plot of Lord of War comes alarmingly close to mirroring our own reality, given the United States' role as the world's leading arms exporting nation.

For example, it was recently revealed that the Pentagon has secretly shipped tens of thousands of small arms from Bosnia to Iraq in the past two years using a web of private arms dealers, at least one of which is a noted arms smuggler blacklisted by both Washington, D.C., and the United Nations. According to Amnesty International, which investigated the sales, the U.S. government arranged for delivery of at least 200,000 Kalashnikov machine guns from Bosnia to Iraq in 2004-2005, reportedly to arm the fledgling Iraqi military. However, as The Guardian UK reported, the guns may have fallen into the wrong hands.

The American arms trade is undeniably a highly profitable business. Each year, billions of dollars flood into the U.S. from foreign entities and countries in exchange for weapons and military technology. Unfortunately, at least for key decision-makers, the profit seems to outweigh the lives lost. And American taxpayers seem to be caught in the crossfire.

In addition to unknowingly paying billions of dollars yearly to fund the exportation of weapons, American taxpayers are experiencing the backlash from increasing instability overseas. For example, in 1999 alone, the U.S. supplied arms and training to more than 92% of the world's conflicts, outfitting non-democratic regimes and soldiers committing human rights abuses. Between 1998 and 2001, over 68% of world arms were delivered to developing nations where conflict and societal violence linger.

Arms are exported from the U.S. through two channels: foreign military sales and direct commercial sales arms profiteers. U.S. weapons, spare parts, construction and services to foreign governments through the U.S. Department of State make up the majority of the transactions, with new contracts totaling $13.1 billion in 2001. Transfers negotiated directly between the manufacturer and foreign buyers with the approval of the State Department are much less prevalent but still deadly, with deliveries totaling $821.1 million in 2001. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Greece each made purchases of nearly $2 billion in 2003.

While arms sales skyrocket, the U.S. also provides military financing for foreign countries, funding military grants to foreign governments and underwriting their purchases of weaponry and services. For example, the 2001 foreign military financing portion of the international affairs budget was $3.6 billion, with $3.4 billion going to the Middle East. An additional $58 million funded military training in countries at war or with horrific human rights crimes, such as Indonesia and Rwanda.

Indeed, a World Policy Institute (WPI) report found that the majority of American arms sales are to governments that have been declared undemocratic by the U.S. State Department. A majority of the world's active conflicts have also been supplied by U.S. goods and services. "Billions of U.S. arms sales to Afghanistan in the 1980s ended up empowering Islamic fundamentalist fighters across the globe," states William D. Hartung, director of the WPI's Arms Trade Resource Center. "Our current policy of arming unstable regimes could have similarly disastrous consequences, with U.S.-supplied weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, insurgents, or hostile governments." The U.S. government also has a consistent record of supporting governments with histories of serious human rights abuses, such as Colombia, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

As a result, the U.S. military finds itself facing off with foreign troops trained in its own techniques or equipped with its own weaponry. Such has been the case in Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti and Afghanistan.

Military governments have been aided as well. Pakistan, whose government was overthrown in a military coup in 1999, has been receiving emergency military aid as a U.S. ally in the war on terror. The Bush Administration recently decided to provide Pakistan with F-16 fighter planes, while also promising comparable equipment to its rival, India. Critics argue that this is a prime example of U.S. greed directly fueling the flames of decades-old conflicts. "Arming repressive regimes while simultaneously proclaiming a campaign against tyranny undermines the credibility of the United States and makes it harder to hold other nations to high standards of conduct on human rights and other key issues," said Frida Berrigan of WPI.

The growing sale and availability of small arms have also contributed to the increasing number of conflicts. In recent years, over 80% of conflicts have been civilian, with 90% of these involving small arms.

The duplicity involved in arms sales is shown by the U.S. relationship with Iraq. The Bush Administration justified the war in Iraq after citing its government's stockpile of chemical weapons, nuclear and biological programs and Saddam Hussein's contact with international terrorists. However, the fact that these offenses date back to when Hussein was a strong political ally of the U.S. is often ignored. A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in aiding Iraqi defense attacks against suicidal Iranian troops. And amazingly enough, the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses such as anthrax and bubonic plague.

In Lord of War, Yuri Orlov makes a very real point when he asks: "You know who's going to inherit the world? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other."

ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

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