From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Sun Jan 28 2007 - 12:11:48 EST
The Federation of American Scientists has a critical comment about Venezuela's arms purchases here: http://www.fas.org/blog/ssp/2006/12/venezuelas_military_buildup_wh.php The suggestion is that if Chavez arms the citizenry, he will not be able to control what is done with the weapons - they could be illegally traded all over the place. For balance, the FAS also points out that: The U.S. dominates this international arms market, supplying just under half of all arms exports in 2001, roughly two and a half times more than the second and third largest suppliers. [2 ] U.S. weapons sales help outfit non-democratic regimes, soldiers who commit gross human rights abuses against their citizens and citizens of other countries, and forces in unstable regions on the verge of, in the middle of, or recovering from conflict. (...) The United States military has had to face troops previously trained by its own military or supplied with U.S. weaponry in Panama, Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, and now in Afghanistan. Due to the advanced capabilities these militaries have acquired from past U.S. training and sales, the U.S. had to invest much more money and manpower in these conflicts than would have otherwise been needed. http://www.fas.org/asmp/fast_facts.htm J.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Jan 31 2007 - 00:00:05 EST