John Whitehead's Commentary
Masters of War: U.S. Armament Sales to the World
"Come you masters of war, you that build all the guns, you that build the death planes, you that build the big bombs, you that hide behind walls, you that hide behind desks, I just want you to know, I can see through your masks."--Bob Dylan, "Masters of War" (1963)
It has been four decades since 21-year-old Bob Dylan penned his masterpiece, "Masters of War." A diatribe against war profiteering, Dylan's song captured the moment.
Like everyone else at the time, Dylan had been caught in the shadows of Armageddon. For several weeks, beginning in October 1962 with the Cuban missile crisis, the country lived out the awe, truculence and simmering near panic implicit in the thermo-nuclear age. Tensions eased when John F. Kennedy's firm stand backed the Russians down and they agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's final advice to the incoming President in January 1961 was to beware of the military-industrial complex. Eisenhower had belatedly realized that armament manufacturers were beginning to dictate much of American foreign policy. They had, in effect, encouraged the Cold War arms race and reckless military adventures, which eventually led to the Vietnam debacle. Eisenhower had also seen the armament industry's influence spread and gain a foothold in science and education. Indeed, by 1960 the federal government was subsidizing research in American universities to the tune of over a billion dollars a year. And it was armaments--Russian missiles in Cuba--that pushed the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation.
Sadly, Eisenhower's warnings have fallen on deaf ears. At more than $360 billion this past year--as compared to a little over $50 billion spent on education--the U.S. military budget has skyrocketed out of all proportion. Add to this the startling fact that the United States is the leading international supplier of armaments, delivering more than $120 billion worth of weapons between 1993-1996 to countries around the world. Moreover, U.S. companies cornered nearly 50% of the total arms market in the 1990s. Some of the countries doing the most purchasing of weapons from arms dealers like the U.S., U.K. and Russia are Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea, India, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan and, believe it or not, China.
From 1993 to 1997, the U.S. government sold, approved or gave away $190 billion in weapons to virtually every nation on earth. Mother Jones magazine reported in a 1999 article that the U.S.--an equal opportunity agent--"has a nasty habit of arming both sides in a conflict, as well as countries with blighted democracy or human rights-records, like Indonesia, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia."
Not even concerns over countries with human rights violations seem to impede the sale of U.S.-made weapons. Although President Jimmy Carter made a commendable effort to restrict the sale of weapons to questionable customers, the combined contributions of the Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and the present Bush administrations have turned the sale of armaments into something of a free-for-all. And we would be naïve not to believe that some of these weapons end up in our enemies' hands, as well as those of terrorists.
As deplorable as it may sound, greed is a motive in U.S. arms sales. As William D. Hartung, director of the Arms Trade Resource Center, pointed out in his report, "Welfare for Weapons Dealers: The Hidden Costs of the Arms Trade," "Domestic economic considerations have emerged as a predominant factor in arms transfer decision making." In other words, how much money private U.S. companies can make is often the determination in deciding which international agents the U.S. government approves to buy our weapons.
Over the years, various members of Congress have tried to slow armament sales by restricting weapons exports to countries with human rights violations. In each instance, they have been soundly defeated by well-financed and influential arms lobbyists. For example, in 1995, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) introduced the Code of Conduct Bill, which would have tied all U.S. arms exports to the customer's democracy record, human rights record and its willingness to report arms imports and exports to the United Nations. However, in the wake of extensive lobbying by three influential arms export groups, the bill was soundly defeated in both the House and the Senate.
Like many of Bob Dylan's songs, "Masters of War" has transcended the time in which it was written. "It would have great meaning during the looming Vietnam War," writes Howard Sounes in Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (Grove Press, 2001), "and it still rang true nearly three decades later during the Gulf War of 1995." Sadly, however, "Masters of War" still rings true, as a world armed to the teeth with U.S. government financed weapons is poised and ready for war.
The present course of U.S. armament sales should not be condoned. It is a moral issue of gigantic proportions and something everyone, no matter their party line, should speak out against. And we should be clear in our condemnation of those who profit from death in our ravaged and torn world--even if it is our own government. For, as Dylan sings to such profiteers in "Masters of War," "Even Jesus would never forgive what you do."
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
It has been four decades since 21-year-old Bob Dylan penned his masterpiece, "Masters of War." A diatribe against war profiteering, Dylan's song captured the moment.
Like everyone else at the time, Dylan had been caught in the shadows of Armageddon. For several weeks, beginning in October 1962 with the Cuban missile crisis, the country lived out the awe, truculence and simmering near panic implicit in the thermo-nuclear age. Tensions eased when John F. Kennedy's firm stand backed the Russians down and they agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower's final advice to the incoming President in January 1961 was to beware of the military-industrial complex. Eisenhower had belatedly realized that armament manufacturers were beginning to dictate much of American foreign policy. They had, in effect, encouraged the Cold War arms race and reckless military adventures, which eventually led to the Vietnam debacle. Eisenhower had also seen the armament industry's influence spread and gain a foothold in science and education. Indeed, by 1960 the federal government was subsidizing research in American universities to the tune of over a billion dollars a year. And it was armaments--Russian missiles in Cuba--that pushed the world to the brink of nuclear annihilation.
Sadly, Eisenhower's warnings have fallen on deaf ears. At more than $360 billion this past year--as compared to a little over $50 billion spent on education--the U.S. military budget has skyrocketed out of all proportion. Add to this the startling fact that the United States is the leading international supplier of armaments, delivering more than $120 billion worth of weapons between 1993-1996 to countries around the world. Moreover, U.S. companies cornered nearly 50% of the total arms market in the 1990s. Some of the countries doing the most purchasing of weapons from arms dealers like the U.S., U.K. and Russia are Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea, India, Egypt, Israel, Pakistan and, believe it or not, China.
From 1993 to 1997, the U.S. government sold, approved or gave away $190 billion in weapons to virtually every nation on earth. Mother Jones magazine reported in a 1999 article that the U.S.--an equal opportunity agent--"has a nasty habit of arming both sides in a conflict, as well as countries with blighted democracy or human rights-records, like Indonesia, Colombia, and Saudi Arabia."
Not even concerns over countries with human rights violations seem to impede the sale of U.S.-made weapons. Although President Jimmy Carter made a commendable effort to restrict the sale of weapons to questionable customers, the combined contributions of the Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton and the present Bush administrations have turned the sale of armaments into something of a free-for-all. And we would be naïve not to believe that some of these weapons end up in our enemies' hands, as well as those of terrorists.
As deplorable as it may sound, greed is a motive in U.S. arms sales. As William D. Hartung, director of the Arms Trade Resource Center, pointed out in his report, "Welfare for Weapons Dealers: The Hidden Costs of the Arms Trade," "Domestic economic considerations have emerged as a predominant factor in arms transfer decision making." In other words, how much money private U.S. companies can make is often the determination in deciding which international agents the U.S. government approves to buy our weapons.
Over the years, various members of Congress have tried to slow armament sales by restricting weapons exports to countries with human rights violations. In each instance, they have been soundly defeated by well-financed and influential arms lobbyists. For example, in 1995, Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.) introduced the Code of Conduct Bill, which would have tied all U.S. arms exports to the customer's democracy record, human rights record and its willingness to report arms imports and exports to the United Nations. However, in the wake of extensive lobbying by three influential arms export groups, the bill was soundly defeated in both the House and the Senate.
Like many of Bob Dylan's songs, "Masters of War" has transcended the time in which it was written. "It would have great meaning during the looming Vietnam War," writes Howard Sounes in Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan (Grove Press, 2001), "and it still rang true nearly three decades later during the Gulf War of 1995." Sadly, however, "Masters of War" still rings true, as a world armed to the teeth with U.S. government financed weapons is poised and ready for war.
The present course of U.S. armament sales should not be condoned. It is a moral issue of gigantic proportions and something everyone, no matter their party line, should speak out against. And we should be clear in our condemnation of those who profit from death in our ravaged and torn world--even if it is our own government. For, as Dylan sings to such profiteers in "Masters of War," "Even Jesus would never forgive what you do."
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. He can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at staff@rutherford.org. Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.
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