Does anyone ever wonder, can the World really be a better place
with all these weapons running around?
What World peace is the Americans trying to preach? With
hypocrisy and deceive.
(AFP) - The United States expanded its role as the world's leading
weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of
all foreign armaments deals, The New York Times reported.
Citing a new congressional study, the newspaper said the United
States signed weapons agreements valued at 37.8 billion dollars
last year, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms
bazaar.
The figure marked a significant increase from US arms sales of
25.4 billion dollars the year before, the paper noted.
Italy was a distant second, with 3.7 billion dollars in
worldwide weapons sales in 2008, while Russia was third with 3.5
billion dollars in arms sales last year -- down considerably from
the 10.8 billion in weapons deals signed by Moscow in 2007, the
report pointed out.
The growth in weapons sales by the United States last year was
particularly noticeable against worldwide trends, The Times
said.
The value of global arms sales in 2008 was 55.2 billion dollars,
a drop of 7.6 percent from 2007 and the lowest total for
international weapons agreements since 2005, according to the
report.
The increase in American weapons sales around the world "was
attributable not only to major new orders from clients in the Near
East and in Asia, but also to the continuation of significant
equipment and support services contracts with a broad-based number
of US clients globally," the paper quotes the study produced by the
Congressional Research Service.