‘An international embarrassment,’ One, Gun Violence in America, Two, America’s Weapons are Killing Innocent People in the Middle East; Weapons are Number One Enemy of Humanity

 

 

‘An international embarrassment,’ One, Gun Violence in America, Two, America’s Weapons are Killing Innocent People in the Middle East; Weapons are Number One Enemy of Humanity

 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden, take $200 million from defense and invest in the children’s future for the next ten years.

Mujeeb Khan

Task Group Taji-7 has helped facilitate the transfer of heavy weapons and ammunition consignment from the US to the Iraqi government

 

Syrian Soldiers find Israel-made Weapons near Homs, City

 

Yemenis fighting with Saudi Arabia and its allies

Israeli Soldiers targeting  unarmed civilians in West Bank

 

The International Defense Exhibition in Abu Dhabi, UAE

 

  Gun violence in the United States and the sale of weapons to countries in unnecessary wars around the world are similar issues. Gun violence has risen dramatically in the last 20 years, at the same time, new fronts of war have opened in the world. There were protests all over the world against wars and whenever people in the United States died in gun violence, there was a lot of talk about making a strict law against the sale of guns. But the supply of weapons was not cut off during the wars, nor was anything done to control guns in the homeland. Iraq was invaded to destroy its weapons. After destroying old weapons, new weapons were first given by the Bush administration to various militia groups in Iraq. When the new government of Nouri al- Maliki, Prime Minister was formed in Iraq, Bush administration started selling arms to it. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki used US weapons to eliminate militias from Iraq. Weapons from Iraq were reaching North Africa, West Africa, and the Horn of Africa. The United States has said that if US troops leave Afghanistan, al Qaeda and ISIS will enter Afghanistan and then attack the United States and its allies from there. But Iraq was no different from Afghanistan, weapons from Iraq were reaching al-Qaeda’s subsidiaries in Africa. Terrorist attacks were being carried out with weapons in African countries, innocent civilians were dying. The governments of these countries were asked to eliminate terrorists. The Obama administration provided $ 500 million in weapons to the government of Ali Abdullah al-Salah in Yemen to fight al Qaeda, but the weapons disappeared from the government’s weapons storage. The CIA was conducting operations against al-Qaeda in Yemen at the time, but it did not know how the $500 million in weapons had disappeared. Perhaps, the Houthis used these weapons in the war against Saudi Arabia. Israel and United States have repeatedly accused Iran of supply weapons to Houthis.

  There were not as many weapons in the Middle East during the Cold War as there were in the Middle East 25 years after the end of the Cold War. The war on terror was a bonanza for weapons. The war on terror was a two-way street. The terrorists were being armed on one side of the street, and terrorists were being eliminated on the other side of the street. Nearly $1 trillion has been spent on wars in 25 years, $1 trillion was earned by arms manufacturers, now President Biden is asking for a trillion dollars to build infrastructure, putting the United States in this situation, its power is falling on every front in the world. President Biden should impose a 40 percent tax on weapons manufacturers, in regions where conflict and tension are becoming dangerous to humanity, there should be a strict ban on the sale and supply of all kinds of weapons.

  In a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute states that ‘International arms deliveries were flat between 2016 and 2020, more than a decade of increases was coming to an end. The United States, France, and Germany were the world’s biggest exporters, but Russia and China were lagging in exports. For the first time since 2001-2005, the demand for delivery volumes of major weapons between countries has not increased significantly in the last five years.’ According to the SIPRI report, but arms imports in Middle Eastern countries increased sharply, from 15 percent in 2011-15 to 20 percent in 2011-20. Saudi Arabia was the largest arms importer in the world. Its arms imports rose 61 percent and Qatar’s 361 percent.

  The United Arab Emirates has agreed to buy $23 billion worth of weapons from the United States, including 50 F-35jets. Qatar is the largest US naval base in the Middle East. It is a small country with a population of about 2.9 million. But the 361 percent increase in its arms imports is staggering. A country’s arms imports have increased by 361 percent, while an African country with a population of 50 million has no resources to import more than 2 percent of its medicines.