Reply #19: Fueling the Fire: How We Armed the Middle East [View All]

Warning that the virtually unrestrained spread of conventioanl weaponry threatens stability in every region of the world President Jimmy Carter attempted in the mid-1970s to constrain U.S. military sales in the Third World and to negotiate a mutal curb on arms exports with the Soviets. These efforts failed. Carter's attempt to limit U.S. military sales collided with the use of arms transfers as an instrument of diplomacy-- especially in the Middle East--and his opvertures to Moscow were forestalled by a resurgence of Cold War tentions. Since then, no serious effort has been made to curb international arms trafficking, and sales to the Third World have skyrocketed. As Carter predicted, unrestrained commerce in conventional arms has fueled local arms races and inspired aggresive powers like Iraq to employ their bulging arsenals in unprovoked attacks on neighboring countries. If the present crisis in the Persian Gulf is to have any positive outcome, therefore, it should be demonstrated the urgent need to curtail the global arms trade.
http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920707g.htm