Arms Suppliers Scramble into Iraq

[G_j]

The overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime by US forces in March 2003 also ended a 14-year-long arms embargo on Iraq. Inter Press Service reports that ending military sanctions has triggered a rush by the world's largest weapons dealers, including the US, Austria and Russia, to stake a claim in the re-emerging Iraqi arms market.
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Arms Suppliers Scramble into Iraq (July 12, 2004)

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/attack/consequences/2004/0712armstrade.htm

When the 15-member United Nations Security Council legitimized the US-imposed interim government in Baghdad in June, the five-page unanimous resolution carried a provision little publicized in the media: the lifting of a 14-year arms embargo on Iraq. The Security Council's decision to end military sanctions on Iraq has triggered a rush by the world's weapons dealers to make a grab for a potentially multimillion-dollar new arms market in the already over-armed Middle East.

The former US-run Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which handed over power to the new Iraqi government on June 28, finalized plans for the purchase of six C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft, 16 Iroquois helicopters and a squadron of 16 low-flying, light reconnaissance aircraft - all for delivery by next April. The proposed purchases were part of an attempt to rebuild and revitalize Iraq's sanctions-hit, weapons-starved military.

But some experts question the strategy. "The flow of weapons to Iraq will not improve the security situation in Iraq, nor will it make the country safe from outside threats or an external invasion," said Naseer H Aruri, chancellor professor (emeritus) at the University of Massachusetts. "With 140,000 US military personnel, 20,000 from the so-called coalition of the willing and another 20,000 contracted civilians, Iraq remains occupied and denied effective sovereignty," said Aruri, author of Dishonest Broker: The US Role in Israel and Palestine.

"Purchasing weapons at this time, therefore, is more relevant to the needs of the occupier relating to the suppression of armed opposition, and consolidation of US hegemony. Moreover, it is not appropriate for the interim government, a subcontracting agency for the United States, to go shopping for arms as numerous arms exporting countries compete feverishly for contracts," he told Inter Press Service (IPS).

..more..

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Round and round we go

The overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime by US forces in March 2003 also ended a 14-year-long arms embargo on Iraq. Inter Press Service reports that ending military sanctions has triggered a rush by the world's largest weapons dealers, including the US, Austria and Russia, to stake a claim in the re-emerging Iraqi arms market.<<

Ahhhhh spreading peace and democracy.... how sweet. I just love the smell of napalm in the morning.... why do I get a sinking feeling when I read stuff like this?

[G_j]

2. just what the doctor ordered

more killing devices. And of course in a few years, who knows where they will be or who they will be aimed at?
It may make a civil war more exciting though. <obvious sarcasm

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. *siiiigh*

[G_j]

3. kick

[Stone_Spirits]

4. this is going to bring peace?

:puke: