Arms merchants rake in the Moolah

There are few things that make my blood boil more than reports issued by a certain group.

The organization, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, is actually a favorite of mine, and the work it does on tracking global arms spending is extremely important. But reading its research gets me all upset.

Its latest study is having the same effect. In a report issued this week, the think tank reveals that weapons peddlers were merrily unaffected by the Great Recession. Quite to the contrary. While governments around the world were cutting essential services to their people by offering up the economic crisis as an excuse, they were simultaneously gobbling up arms on the international bazaar. The result: At a time when people have been hurting everywhere, weapons purchases increased globally by a whopping 22 percent in the past five years (2005-2009) as compared to the previous five-year period.

The United States is the biggest merchant of death, accounting for almost one-third of the sales, with Russia close behind, having nearly one-fourth of the total.

“The USA delivered weapons to seventy countries and to NATO in the period 2005–2009, more than any other supplier,” says the report. “Asia and Oceania accounted for most U.S. deliveries (39 per cent), followed by the Middle East (36 percent) and Europe (18 per cent). Combat aircraft and associated weapons and components accounted for 48 per cent of the volume of U.S. deliveries of major conventional weapons during this period.”

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For example, see Indian helicopter deal saves 4,000 Westland jobs