The US accounted for more than half of the global arms market last year. (file photo)
Ben Norton, Salon: Nothing to be proud of: The real American exceptionalism is selling the most weapons in the world — by far
By selling weapons at alarming levels, the U.S. is further fueling the extremism it purports to be fighting
American exceptionalism — the notion that the U.S. is somehow an exceptional country, with no parallels in the world — is largely a myth. There is, however, one way in which it is absolutely true: The U.S. sells more weapons than any other country.
The U.S. has just 5 percent of the global population, but sells more than half of its weapons. And this number is increasing.
A new congressional study found that foreign arms sales by the U.S. increased by almost $10 billion in 2014 — up 35 percent.
No other countries even come close to the U.S. in weapons sales. As much as politicians and the media fear-monger about Russia, it sold just $10.2 billion in weapons in 2014 — a decrease from 2013. This pales in comparison to the $36.2 billion in arms sales the U.S. made in the same year.
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WNU Editor: Aside from Ben Norton's remarks on American exceptionalism .... which he does not understand even though he is an American (my commentary on American exceptionalism is here) .... he is spot-on correct on America's unique ability to sell weapons around the world. My prediction .... 2016 is going to be a banner year for U.S. arms exporters, and what may limit this growth will be concerns that maybe we are also selling weapons to our future enemies. On a side note .... you sometimes have to wonder on how corrupt our international institutions are .... all of this explosive growth occurred during the tenure of a President who was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
Obama permitted this to occur under his watch since this industry provides American jobs. You can't off shore your military industries like you can with the textile industries. Simply put, it's about jobs and money. If the Noble Peace President was truly authentic he would ban the sales and his US unemployment numbers would elevate quickly. Sad reality since killing is such a big industry. And the really sad part is, if the U.S. didn't do it somebody would replace them instantly. God help our madness!!!!
ReplyDeleteThree of the top four buyers are in the Middle East, which qualifies "sales to the world" just a bit.
ReplyDeleteThe ME is changing, with the US getting pushed out of the larger countries and Russia ascending. Regime change in any of the despotic Gulf countries would be a game-changer, especially if the House of Saud, a major US ally and arms buyer, would fall. I imagine that Iran is working on that.
"if i dont ...(sell the fiend some dope, take advantage of that girl, steal that,..ect) some one else will so why not me" is the biggest excuse gangsters use to justify what they are doing. Even though i would rather keep all that in house im just saying.
ReplyDeleteThe foreign arms sales by the U.S. increasing day to day. Why they selling like this weapons for the world? Is they happy to create a war?
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