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Title: Very profitable slaughter Author: Workers Solidarity Movement Date: 1993 Language: en Topics: militarism, Workers Solidarity Source: Retrieved on 13th October 2021 from http://struggle.ws/ws93/arms40.html Notes: Published in Workers Solidarity No. 40 — Autumn 1993.
As the UN is currently claiming to be trying to bring peace to Somalia
by disarming the ‘Warlords” a recent US congressional study reported in
the July issue of the US magazine Financial Review makes interesting
reading. It shows that the people who pumped arms into Somalia in the
1980’s are still pumping arms into the third world in the 1990’s.
The United States remained the biggest arms supplier to the third world
in 1992, increasing its share of the market to 57% from 49% in 1991,
according to the US Congressional study. For all the scare mongering
about Russian arms exports they only comprise 5.4%, of the world trade
with arms deals in 1992 of US$1.3 billion. The US total is however
US$13.6 billion..
At the moment the west is trying to build a fear of third world nations
acquiring weapons as a way of maintaining social peace at home. For
years we were kept in line through the use of the cold war. Now instead
of Russia, North Korea and Iraq are supposed to be big threats. States
which fulfil the wishes of the Western bosses get armed regardless of
their record on democracy or human rights. Yet the bosses tell us that
they are against arming undemocratic states.
Two of the top three recipients of US arms exports were Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait. Both of these countries are amongst the most undemocratic on the
planet with despotic rulers and viscous anti-women legislation which
even bans women from driving cars. Both have been highlighted by human
rights organisations like Amnesty International as routinely making use
of torture against political opponents.
The rest of the top ten is not surprisingly composed of other states
claiming to be bringing peace to the world. In order these are
That’s all the permanent members of the United Nations security council
in the Top Ten dealers of death list.
The West and the UN can not be part of the solution to any of the words
problems. They are the police for the bosses’ profit margins. From the
former Yugoslavia to Somalia they have no progressive role to play.