Adam Trueblood Commentary	Index
The Great Proliferator In any society the citizens, whether they work in government or the private sector, are collectively responsible for the common good.  A local business with fine reputation and strong financial returns might nevertheless undermine a town’s collective good by secretly dumping toxics in the river upon which the local citizens depend for clean water.  A local politician who has furthered the educational system upon which the citizens depend might also injure the collective good by engaging in unfair awards of government contracts to his associates, thereby hurting other elements of society.  In the area of maintaining peace and an atmosphere free of violence, one would look to a town’s constable or sheriff to maintain law and order, dispense just punishments, and work to create an environment where citizens might live without fear.  He would be looked to not only for grand pronouncements of a “war on crime” and periodic flourishes of high-profile apprehensions, but also a consistent, effective approach to maintaining a just and violence free society. It would make sense then that the party responsible for law enforcement wouldn’t also oversee a large arms bazaar where murderous weapons (handguns, AK-47s, Uzis, etc.) were disbursed to those willing to pay the highest price. The United States is a large and complex society, one that has unquestionably accomplished admirable and heroic feats on the world scene.  Yet  we are also depended upon for legitimacy, for a role of shared leadership that is based upon consistency between action and pronouncements.  The government’s recent avalanche of rhetoric about “freedom” and “liberty” and “democracy” has been used to justify a putative effort to reduce violence and terrorism throughout the world.  We are engaged in a historic “war on terror” the government opines, a war necessitating sacrifice and true warfare in order to succeed in the goal of allowing for a free and peaceful society. In this case the government’s rhetoric is matched only by its deep hypocrisy, since like the town constable who also sells assault rifles out the back door to the highest bidder,  the United States is simultaneously promoting itself as the world’s agent of peace when it is also fighting to maintain its role as the world’s primary arms dealer.   Whether one studies the federal military expenditures or national arms exports, the United States emerges as the dominant player on the world scene.  The world spends just under $1 trillion on its collective military budget, and the US accounts for an amount roughly equivalent to the rest of the world combined.  Following is a chart detailing annual military expenditures, courtesy of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI):                             1999        2000        2001        2002        2003 US ($ Bill)            281          392          313          357          446 World                   699          727          810          861          956 US Share              40.2%      53.9%     38.6%      41.4%      46.7%   Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union and the lack of any threatening global power, the United States has continued to escalate its annual military spending.  This serves to make other nations nervous, to make them engage in actions consistent with an arms race, where they have only one defense against the US military colossus – weapons of mass destruction that equalize the power balance.   Perhaps more alarming is the arms export industry, where the United States allows for exports of arms to other governments or in commercial sales programs.  The US consistently dominates the arms trade, which SIPRI estimates can reach up to $50 billion annually.   Looking just at our sales direct to foreign governments, the US has a dominant share of this global arms trade, and when one factors in the commercial sales, for which data is less forthcoming, our share is even larger.  Following is a chart of our share of the total arms trade, counting only our direct foreign sales:                            1999       2000     2001      2002 World ($ Bill.)    44.7        35.3      33.6       34.0 US Share           23.3%     29.7%   36.3%   30.0%   The other day I noticed an interesting juxtaposition while reading the newspaper.  At the top of the page was an article discussing the dangers posed by an extremely armed society such as Iraq, where the local population has access to such quantities of weapons that it poses a lethal, perhaps unconquerable foe for even the best military in the world.  Below this article was a discussion of US success in maintaining its share of the global arms business.   Perhaps the US government should spend more time assessing the origins of the armed Iraqi state and less time wrapping itself in its carefully cultivated image as guardian of peace.  Our dominant role as the world’s primary provider of weapons and national culpability for spreading violence and misery through the global arms bazaar preclude any assumption of leadership in the struggle for peace.   June, 2004