US record arms sale: 'Human rights champion' became 'arms salesman'

By Farhad Chowdhury

U.S. weaponry sales expanded globally several times once a new conflict broke out overseas. No exemption this time. Its arms sales during the Ukraine conflict peaked in 2022. Once again, U.S. military equipment sales to foreign countries reached a record $238 billion in 2023, up 16 percent year-over-year.

What's more astonishing and remarkable is that the U.S. State Department says weapons transfers and defense commerce are important foreign policy instruments with long-term regional and global security repercussions.

Foreign Military Sales and Direct Commercial Sales – the former is government-to-government transfers of systems and services while the latter is U.S. contractors' selling to governments – make up the $238 billion export total.

Apache helicopters, F-35 aircraft, and CH-47F Chinook helicopters were sold through Foreign Military Sales to Poland, the Czech Republic, South Korea, Germany and Bulgaria. Moreover, Italy, India and Saudi Arabia have privately negotiated Direct Commercial Sales authorizations for F-35 wings assemblies, GE F414-INS6 engine hardware, and Patriot Guided Missile.

Intensifying pressures on NATO allies to buy U.S. arms, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the Middle East crisis, protection of Israel, building so-called China threat in Asia-Pacific and Russia threat in Europe, cold-war mindset, U.S.-built security blocs to target China are all reasons behind the growth of arms sales in 2023. War causes death, suffering, and inflation in every nation, yet U.S. weaponry sales have grown and prospered during crises.

William Hartung, an arms industry expert and senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, called the State Department's 2023 celebration of record weapons sales "tone deaf." He cites Israel's use of U.S.-made bombs on Gazan civilians.

The U.S. was thrilled by Germany's approval of investing $100 billion on defense in response to the Ukraine conflict in 2022, as the U.S. will gain in the end. Germany wanted to acquire five F-35 combat planes from America even though the people protested strongly.

Since the outset of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the U.S. has encouraged Europe and NATO partners to provide Ukraine with arms and military help. As the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts continue, the American weapon business will charm up. The government can sell more weapons than ever.

However, increased U.S. military sales are producing tension and turmoil in Northeast Asia, the Middle East, and East Europe, jeopardizing world peace by starting a new arms race. U.S. military shipments to Israel, Ukraine, and some other places damage peace and stability and even start a regional arms race.

The U.S. has 750 bases in at least 80 countries and spends more on its military than the combined military spending of the next 10 countries. The private munitions producers that provide weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) are either directly or indirectly involved in setting U.S. foreign policy. Because U.S. capitalists have all the sway in the armaments trade, Biden stands to gain from it. By selling weapons and providing assistance, capitalists influence governments to stop conflict, encourage aggressiveness, and participate in it, which leads to indiscriminate assaults on people.

In her book An Indigenous People's History of the United States, former California State University professor Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz described Americans' totalitarianism. Sales of weapons and backing of terrorist organizations by capitalists encourage governments to avert, maintain, and facilitate conflict, resulting in civilian casualties.

U.S. weapons merchants profit from the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, underlining the U.S.'s controversial role in global destabilization and manufactured geopolitics. While selling weaponry to keep peace, the U.S. profits from raising global tension and instigating worldwide conflicts via its foreign policy. Military-industrial complex interests cause wars, encouraging nations to spend more and acquire U.S. weaponry. U.S. foreign policy supports military predominance, making it the greatest weapons dealer.

Washington may utilize Biden's "arms salesman" position to win more support in Congress and presidential elections, analysts say. The military-industrial complex impacts U.S. foreign policy via weapons transfers and defense commerce. Although the nation talks a good game of humanity, it trades armaments under the pretext of conflict. Unrest in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific will raise military expenditure and stock replenishment, perhaps favoring U.S. defense exports in fiscal year 2024, but countries should comprehend this and choose peace over violence. All countries should be anti-war and attentive to war dangers.

Farhad Chowdhury, a special commentator for CGTN, is a security and strategic affairs researcher and columnist.