The United States had already set records for global arms sales. The New York Times reported in November that the Bush administration and American military contractors doubled arms sales from $10.6 billion to $21 billion from September 2005 to September 2006.
Frida Berrigan, senior program associate at the Arms and Security Project of the New America Foundation estimates that the latest proposal will increase military aid and weaponry by another 25 percent.
And there is no hint of a coherent policy. 80 percent of nations that received arms from America in 2003 were classified by the State Department as being either undemocratic or having a poor human rights record, which covers all the Arab countries in the new deal. (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates)
Israel is a democracy, but in its 2006 country profile, the State Department cites a source that determined that 322 of 660 Palestinians killed by the Israeli military “were not engaged in hostilities when killed and 141 were minors.”
Berrigan said, “We’ve created a black hole in what used to be a country and this is supposed to be the solution? More military aid and more high-tech weaponry? The best case scenario is that Congress exercises its power and keeps this from happening.”
[Excerpt of an article by Derrick Z. Jackson, The Boston Globe]
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