As Substitute for Diplomacy, $20 Billion Arms Deal Falls Short
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 14, 2008
CONTACT: Travis Sharp
Washington, D.C. – As the Bush administration today initiated the formal 30-day notification process for the proposed sale of 900 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs) to Saudi Arabia, the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation released a report accusing the administration of using deadly technologies as the flawed currency of friendship with foreign nations.
The report is available online.
The United States originally announced the sale of $20 billion in advanced weaponry to Saudi Arabia and its neighbors of the Gulf Cooperation Council in July 2007. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are slated to receive JDAM technology, and Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates will receive, among other weapons, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 and -2 (PAC-3 and PAC-2) missiles.
"Bush Administration officials have confirmed on numerous occasions that the $20 billion arms deal is aimed at containing Iran," said Travis Sharp, a Military Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation who authored the report. "It appears that Bush administration officials, who cut their teeth developing ways to contain the Soviet Union's expansionist ambitions, may be regurgitating old, comfortable policies to avoid dealing with new problems."
Previous experiences with Iran and Iraq illustrate that selling arms to strategic allies can backfire if the regime or relationship changes. The United States supplied Iraq with cluster bombs and chemical weapons in the 1980s, only to fight the Iraqi military in 1991 and again in 2003 and watch helplessly in the 1980s as Saddam Hussein brutally murdered thousands of Kurds. Iran made one-third of its defense purchases from the United States during the 1970s, but the two countries are now approaching their third decade of always chilly and sometimes hostile relations.
"Sales of these deadly technologies are often detrimental in the short-term, coming at the price of diplomacy and human rights, and indicating a fundamental misplacement of a country's resources," added Katie Mounts, a Policy Associate at the Center who authored the report.
Sharp concluded: "Arms sales are too often used by the United States as a substitute for vigorous diplomacy."
The report is available online.
RSS Feed