Arms Transfers

Since the end of World War 2 over 30 million people, mostly civilians, have been killed in wars waged with conventional weapons. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States has become the world's preeminent supplier of conventional weapons systems. Since 1990 the United States has sold over $110 billion in arms around the world.

Arms transfers are out of control. The United States is providing some of the most detestable regimes on earth with as much arms as they want. The State Department says that a large portion of these arms deals are going to countries that are not democratic and violate human rights.

Take Turkey, for example. The United States has made negotiations with the Turkish government for the following military aircraft and equipment:

*Four CH-47 Chinook large capacity military cargo helicopters

*Fifty S-70A's Black Hawk armed transport helicopters

*Thirty AS-532 Cougar Combat Search and Rescue helicopters

*Fifty-four F-4 Phantom fighter jet upgrades

*Logistical support for the F-16 fighter jet fleet All of the above equipment and planes were sold to the Turkish government by American businesses: Boeing, Sikorsky, General Electric, Litton Industries, and Westing House Electric. (1)

A group called Human Rights Watch and other independent organizations have documented the use of these fighter planes and military helicopters, in Turkey1s counter-insurgency campaign that has resulted in gross violations of international humanitarian law. This has included firing indiscriminately at villages, thereby killing citizens and destroying property, transporting troops to and from villages, which are forcibly depopulated and burned, and abducting, torturing, and killing civilians.

This horrible, gruesome act was done with American weapons, and this is just one of many examples. Another case would the frightful situation existing and continuing to develop in East Timor, a small island in south east Asia, which has been occupied and brutally ruled by Indonesia, since 1975. The U.S.-supported Indonesian regime there has created starvation, war, epidemics, and terror, which have killed over 200,000 civilians in the past 20 years. This is one-third of East Timor1s original population. Among the dead are two brothers and a sister of Jose Ramos-Horta, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. His sister and brothers were killed with U.S.-made weapons. (2)

This destruction is not only going on in these two countries, but in hundreds of unstable countries around the world- and they are receiving U.S. arms! The United States has been the main supplier of arms to the following governments, which are involved in ongoing conflicts (3):

Turkey- 76%

Spain- 85 %

Israel- 99%

Morocco- 26%

Egypt- 61%

Chad- 27%

Somalia- 44%

Liberia- 40%

Kenya- 25%

Pakistan- 44%

The Philippines- 93%

Indonesia- 38%

Guatemala- 86%

Haiti- 25%

Columbia- 28%

Brazil- 35%

Mexico- 77%

This is just a short list, there are hundreds of other countries receiving U.S. arms, including China and Iraq. In fact, 9 out of 10 of Iraq1s weapons systems came from America!

America, the land of freedom and life, is promoting violence and conflict around the world! Of the significant ethnic and territorial conflicts raging between 1995 and now, 45 out of 50 of them involved one or more parties that had received U.S. military technology! (4) We are supporting destruction around the earth, this must be stopped!

These arms sales and transfers are out of control. As the Cold War ended, arms manufacturers around the world suffered financial losses, and sought profit in new markets. In 1992, developing nations spent 23.9 billion dollars on weapons systems as many human needs went unmet. (5) Eagerly supplied by aggressive American arms merchants, weapons pour into areas of conflict and escalate tensions between warring parties. This shows very clearly that something is gravely wrong with this country1s policy on weapons.

Even more devastating is the fact that our national security is seriously harmed as American companies - through negotiations by President William Jefferson Clinton - sell highly confidential and extremelly powerful weapons to unstable countries.

In 1992, China signed on to the Missile Technology Control Regime-an agreement by nations supplying missile technology to implement export controls. China then sold M-11 ballistic missiles to Pakistan. (6) Chinese rulers have treated pariah states like Iran and Iraq as their most favored nation trading partners. Their trade with these terrorist regimes has been in weapons of mass destruction, including poison gas and offensive missiles. Americans have been killed by these weapons. (7)

The New York Times reported on June 10 that China is using 46 supercomputers purchased from America to build nuclear missiles capable of striking our shores. U.S. Marines who served in the South Pacific in World War 2, all heard the bitter complaint of America's warriors: "The steel we blithely sold to Japan in the 1930's ultimately cost American lives." Must not we ask whether history may be repeating itself in the sale of high-tech weapon systems to China today?

U.S. high-tech trade with China is being conducted with a shortsightedness that exceeds an similar error we1ve made in the past. China is unquestionably engaging in the largest military scale buildup of any great power. Chinese rulers routinely demand--before they will do business with our corporations--that U.S. manufacturers give them high-technology transfers, some of which are known to be diverted to weapons development. A recent deal by McDonnel-Douglas for machine tools, which the Chinese diverted to missile manufacturing, is a case in point. (8)

Against whom will all these weapons be used? Official Chinese journals, according to our own Defense Week, anticipate what they call "a small war" with America by the year 2010 over the issue of Taiwan. A Chinese official has issued a veiled threat to the effect that the United States would not come to the aid of Taiwan if it meant the destruction of Los Angeles.

As the world's foremost arms merchant, the United States has a responsibility to take the lead in curbing the weapons trade. Since 1991, the United States has entered into more new agreements to sell arms than all the other major arms suppliers combined. This situation is simply unacceptable.

U.S. leadership was critical to implementation of international controls on ballistic and anti-personnel land mines; it is time for this country to lead the way again. When unarmed families are being slaughtered, and the security of American citizens is at stake, something has seriously gone wrong and must be stopped.

Ryan Lee Stollar is the President of the Center for American Freedom

[Sources: (1) Human Rights Watch Report, January 1997; (2) 20/20 Vision, December 1996 report; (3) William Hartung, "U.S. Weapons at War," May 1995; (4) William Hartung, "U.S. Weapons at War," May 1995; (5) Oscar Arias, "Los Angeles Times," July 31, 1997; (6) Barr Seitz, ABC News, Oct. 29, 1997; (7) Gary Bauer, in a House Committee on Ways and Means- Subcommittee on Trade, June 17, 1997; (8) Gary Bauer, in a House Committee on Ways and Means- Subcommittee on Trade, June 17, 1997]

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