Arms Sales to Asia and the Gulf Vital to US Corporations

[slipslidingaway]

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/11/15/arms-sales-to-asia-and-the-gulf-vital-to-us-corporations/

"The Pentagon’s plan to sell 5,000 bunker-buster bombs to the United Arab Emirates does conform to the Obama administration’s strategy to strengthen military ties with allies in the Persian Gulf, but the deal may have been propelled for other reasons.

The planned sale is a gift for U.S. defense contractors who are setting their sights on weapons exports to countries abroad in anticipation of cuts to the domestic defense budgets.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, the arms industry got paid like it hadn’t done in years. “Over the course of the decade,” the Financial Times recently reported, “the U.S. annual defense budget has doubled in cash terms to reach nearly $700 billion in 2010. The profits of the U.S. defense industry have quadrupled over that period.”

...Tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons and military equipment have recently been sold to states in the Gulf Cooperation Council – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain – and that number will likely increase in coming years..."

[saras]

1. Another reason to nationalize armaments manufacture

[slipslidingaway]

2. Yes, weapons for corporate profits :( n/t