Posted: January 24, 2003, 5:31 pm
[quote="Fallanthas
Bullshit, sir.
Now, tell me the last time you saw any photograph of a terrorist holding an M-16.....
[/quote]
Falla, you make me want to laugh and cry at the same time. Anyone in South America or gee... Afghanistan want to field this? It's just in our papers they're usually referred to as 'freedom fighters'. gaaaa...
I swear the biggest single problem with the American education is the concept of scale. I'm going to paste a link, please read it. He has taken the time to collect and collate quite a bit of data that is pertinent to this topic.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sm ... useeds.htm
Here are a few paras for those that don't wish to go there:
... now that some pesky arms export controls had been lifted by the Bush administration. Bush wanted to reward Pakistan for its cooperation in the hunt for Osama bin Laden by lifting an arms export ban on Pakistan. To maintain the balance of power in the region, he had to do the same for India. Now some analysts worry that the two nuclear powers are on the verge of a potentially costly and destabilizing arms race, if not outright war.
America's defense industry is clearly big business at home the 2003 budget of $360 billion represents nearly half the total of all world military procurement spending. While such a sizable outlay naturally draws its share of critics, it is America's comparatively smaller arms-for-export industry that can generate even more controversy.
.... as much as $2 billion in direct arms shipments from the United States flooded into Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980s, arming the Taliban and arguably contributing to this previously obscure group of Islamic radicals seizing power in 1994.
This is likely to be good news for U.S. arms manufacturers. At approximately $800 billion annually, the military procurement industry is, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, perhaps the world's single largest market; the $400 billion global trade in illicit drugs is a distant second. In recent years, U.S. arms manufacturers have reached a market dominance that would be the envy of other manufacturing sector leaders. Twelve of the world's top 20 arms-producing companies are located in the United States.
In 1989, the then Soviet Union was the planet's major weapons supplier, exporting nearly $20 billion in arms to Warsaw Pact and other client states most in the developing world. That year, the United States delivered just $17.3 billion in arms exports. The lion share of its exports$12.2 billion went to its NATO allies in the economically developed world. But with the collapse of the Iron Curtain, a noisy queue of new customers, no longer required to hand over company script for inferior weaponry at the Soviet Union's threadbare commissary, has been lining up at "Arms 'R U.S." to purchase more sophisticated and expensive American-made weapons packages.
By 1999, according to the most recent data released by the U.S. State Department's World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers (WMEAT) report, the arms-export market experienced a sharp reversal. Economically beleaguered Russia exported only $3.1 billion in arms while the U.S. shipped $33 billion in weaponry-half of the world exports of supersonic combat fighters, more than one third of all land armaments. The U.S. in 1999 managed to control an eye-popping 64 percent of the global total of $51.6 billion in arms exports.
the State Department and the Pentagon have actually taken a very active role in promoting arms sales. The syndrome became acute during the Clinton administration when arms exports doubled but shows no sign of diminishing now.
Though the arms-export trade can mean billions of dollars in sales to specific companies... the entire arms-export industry represents only a tiny fraction of total U.S. export trade some $30 billion in annual sales out of a total export volume that typically approaches or exceeds $1 trillion each year. She adds that in terms of creating new jobs or an overall multiplier effect throughout the economy, federal dollars invested in the arms industry which has become synonymous with waste and redundancy realize fewer gains than they would if directed at propping up or energizing virtually any other U.S. manufacturing sector.
One of the most troubling aspects of the arms-export industry is the impact it has on particularly vulnerable societies in the developing world. Between 1993 and 2000, arms deliveries to developing nations comprised 68 percent of all such deliveries worldwide. In 2000, the United States ranked first in arms exports to developing nations, accounting for almost half of all such deliveries.
Currently the U.S. Is not engaged in an ongoing export-controls negotiation being conducted among the world's other arms manufacturing heavyweights: Germany, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, and Spain.
In 1999, 80 percent of the arms exports out of Great Britain and France went to developing nations.
Sigh.... I get so angry at this crap, I literally start shaking and have to close my web browser for a while. But please, if you REALLY want to know, follow this link for more about the topic.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sm ... lwindx.htm
Bullshit, sir.
Now, tell me the last time you saw any photograph of a terrorist holding an M-16.....
[/quote]
Falla, you make me want to laugh and cry at the same time. Anyone in South America or gee... Afghanistan want to field this? It's just in our papers they're usually referred to as 'freedom fighters'. gaaaa...
I swear the biggest single problem with the American education is the concept of scale. I'm going to paste a link, please read it. He has taken the time to collect and collate quite a bit of data that is pertinent to this topic.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sm ... useeds.htm
Here are a few paras for those that don't wish to go there:
... now that some pesky arms export controls had been lifted by the Bush administration. Bush wanted to reward Pakistan for its cooperation in the hunt for Osama bin Laden by lifting an arms export ban on Pakistan. To maintain the balance of power in the region, he had to do the same for India. Now some analysts worry that the two nuclear powers are on the verge of a potentially costly and destabilizing arms race, if not outright war.
America's defense industry is clearly big business at home the 2003 budget of $360 billion represents nearly half the total of all world military procurement spending. While such a sizable outlay naturally draws its share of critics, it is America's comparatively smaller arms-for-export industry that can generate even more controversy.
.... as much as $2 billion in direct arms shipments from the United States flooded into Afghanistan and Pakistan during the 1980s, arming the Taliban and arguably contributing to this previously obscure group of Islamic radicals seizing power in 1994.
This is likely to be good news for U.S. arms manufacturers. At approximately $800 billion annually, the military procurement industry is, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, perhaps the world's single largest market; the $400 billion global trade in illicit drugs is a distant second. In recent years, U.S. arms manufacturers have reached a market dominance that would be the envy of other manufacturing sector leaders. Twelve of the world's top 20 arms-producing companies are located in the United States.
In 1989, the then Soviet Union was the planet's major weapons supplier, exporting nearly $20 billion in arms to Warsaw Pact and other client states most in the developing world. That year, the United States delivered just $17.3 billion in arms exports. The lion share of its exports$12.2 billion went to its NATO allies in the economically developed world. But with the collapse of the Iron Curtain, a noisy queue of new customers, no longer required to hand over company script for inferior weaponry at the Soviet Union's threadbare commissary, has been lining up at "Arms 'R U.S." to purchase more sophisticated and expensive American-made weapons packages.
By 1999, according to the most recent data released by the U.S. State Department's World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers (WMEAT) report, the arms-export market experienced a sharp reversal. Economically beleaguered Russia exported only $3.1 billion in arms while the U.S. shipped $33 billion in weaponry-half of the world exports of supersonic combat fighters, more than one third of all land armaments. The U.S. in 1999 managed to control an eye-popping 64 percent of the global total of $51.6 billion in arms exports.
the State Department and the Pentagon have actually taken a very active role in promoting arms sales. The syndrome became acute during the Clinton administration when arms exports doubled but shows no sign of diminishing now.
Though the arms-export trade can mean billions of dollars in sales to specific companies... the entire arms-export industry represents only a tiny fraction of total U.S. export trade some $30 billion in annual sales out of a total export volume that typically approaches or exceeds $1 trillion each year. She adds that in terms of creating new jobs or an overall multiplier effect throughout the economy, federal dollars invested in the arms industry which has become synonymous with waste and redundancy realize fewer gains than they would if directed at propping up or energizing virtually any other U.S. manufacturing sector.
One of the most troubling aspects of the arms-export industry is the impact it has on particularly vulnerable societies in the developing world. Between 1993 and 2000, arms deliveries to developing nations comprised 68 percent of all such deliveries worldwide. In 2000, the United States ranked first in arms exports to developing nations, accounting for almost half of all such deliveries.
Currently the U.S. Is not engaged in an ongoing export-controls negotiation being conducted among the world's other arms manufacturing heavyweights: Germany, Great Britain, France, Sweden, Italy, and Spain.
In 1999, 80 percent of the arms exports out of Great Britain and France went to developing nations.
Sigh.... I get so angry at this crap, I literally start shaking and have to close my web browser for a while. But please, if you REALLY want to know, follow this link for more about the topic.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sm ... lwindx.htm
Do you know anyone that worked as an Intel weenie that wasn't one? Wooooo. 