United States, NATO monopolizing global arms trade

A former US Senator says Congress will not stop the expansion of the US military industrial complex and seeks to globalize weapons on the back of its NATO relationship.

In the background of this, US military spending reached 682 billion dollars in 2012, which is higher than the combined military spending of the next ten countries.

Press TV has interviewed Mike Gravel, former US Senator in San Francisco about this issue. The following is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Looking at the figures that have been presented, it seems that the world, specifically the US, hasn’t come very far after the cold war era has it?

Mike Gravel: Not at all. In fact these figures are not surprising. SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) does a very good job monitoring weaponry around the world, but this is normally the case – the United States is far, far in excess in producing weapons of any other country in the world.

The figure that I’ve seen in some cases is that the United States produces more weapons than all the rest of the world put together. And that‘s a figure that’s even higher than what SIPRI represents, which is of the number of nations that we exceed.

It must be added that in the arms bazaar of the world the United States places more weapons into that bazaar than any other nation in the world and has for quite a number of years.

Press TV: Speaking of which, considering so much money is being spent on weapons by the US, do you think that the American Military Industrial Complex does form a large chunk of the American economy and therefore does translate into very dangerous policies on the ground?

Mike Gravel: No question. In fact you must go further than that.

The American involvement with NATO is nothing more than the globalization of the arms industry or the expansion of the power of the military industrial complex, the globalization of it all led by the United States.

This is a policy that’s ingrained and also has strong economic ties. You have to appreciate that the military production of weapons takes place in probably every congressional district of the members of Congress in the United States.

And so it becomes an issue of employment. If you were to cut back on this trade in weapons you’d be having to cut back on employment and that of course just compounds the economic problem that we find ourselves in since the debacle of 2009 and 2010.

Press TV: So, where does this leave the hopes for peace and stability in the world when you have governments – heavyweight governments like the United States – spending billions of dollars on military expenditure and then making profits by selling them to irresponsible partners and players?

Mike Gravel: Where does it leave us? I don’t know, I don’t have any magic answer for that.

I think it’s just very discouraging that the superpower of the world is the one that’s leading this trade activity of weapons internationally.

The only thing I can think of is we have to find a way to empower the people to be able to make laws directly and the government won’t solve the problem so we have to turn to the people to bring about a solution.