The West is Financing Arab Tyranny

Western weapons have been killing people all over the Middle East, a Qatar newspaper reported.

Gregg Carlstrom and Evan Hill pointed out that in the five years leading up to the Arab Spring, more than $2 billion worth of tanks, guns, tear gas, and other weaponry were sold to Arab nations by Western countries. The recipients of these weapons include Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen.

 

Weapons sold by Western arms manufacturers allowed dictatorial regimes to murder their own citizens.

 

The article, published at Aljazeera.com, points out that in the past five years the United States alone sold or gave more than $1 billion worth to weapons to Egypt alone. Italy, France, and the U.K. in turn gave weapons to Libya and Syria.

 

One would have thought that the genocides in Libya and Syria would have taught the West a lesson. Not so. Last autumn the United States was considering selling Bahrain more than $50 million worth of Humvees and missiles, despite the violence occurring in the country.

 

Although America’s arms sale to Bahrain was opposed by Congress, the Obama administration took advantage of a legal loophole last month which allowed them to bypass congressional approval and push forward a separate deal. This happened even as the Bahrain government was conducting a nearly year-long crackdown against protesters, in addition to taking steps to block American NGOs from operating in the island kingdom.

 
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