U.S. Weapons at War

William Hartung opened the discussion by citing “$32 billion in foreign military sales in 2008,” by the United States, and that “there are many big deals in the works that may make 2009 as big or bigger.” The report looks at the biggest recipients of foreign military aid and analyzes their human rights record and the extent to which they embrace the tenets of democracy. All 25 of the largest benefactors are “undemocratic regimes or major human rights abusers,” Hartung remarked.

Hartung argued that “a sense of balance” has been absent from American decisions in regards to foreign arms sales of late, and that “human rights concerns have been pushed aside” during the Bush tenure. “If you arm a country that turns against you or if weapons fall into hostile hands, you’ve have a problem to deal with for decades to come,” Hartung warned.

Joy Olson focused on changing military and State department authority in regards to Latin America. “We just got to the point where everyone realized it was so much easier to fund things through DOD than the State Department,” Olson noted. She argued that the decision to enlist the military in the war on drugs -- and the military’s decision to work through counterparts in Latin American had severely weakened the State Departments role. “We need a functioning State Department when it comes to security issues.”

Mark Hiznay spoke about cluster bombs and the danger they pose as a major piece of US arms exports. “The dud rate for this is anywhere between 5 and 15 percent, and that’s being generous…so you would have, generally on average from 200 to 600 of these sub-munitions… spread out over a square kilometer.” Lumpe noted that 80 soldiers in the first gulf war were killed by US cluster munitions that had failed to detonate in the early days of the war, and created minefield US troops had to maneuver through. “After Iraq when we started interviewing troop leaders, they were calling these weapons ‘losers’ and ‘cold war relics,’ we had to use them because we had no other type of ammunition…the military is living with procurement decisions made twenty years ago, and they’re stuck with them.”

Participants

Featured Speakers:
William D. Hartung
Director, Arms and Security Initiative
New America Foundation
Report Co-Author, "U.S. Weapons at War: Beyond the Bush Legacy"

Joy Olson
Director, Washington Office on Latin America
Report Co-Author, "Ready, Aim Foreign-Policy: How the Pentagon's Role in Foreign Policy is Growing, and Why Congress-and the American Public-Should Be Worried"
Co-Director, "Just the Facts" Project

Mark Hiznay
Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Moderator
Patrick Doherty
Deputy Director, American Strategy Program
New America Foundation

Related Links

• Policy Paper: U.S. Weapons at War: Beyond the Bush Legacy