OPPOSITE VIEWS ON WEAPONS: ARMS BROKERING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

Source: un.org.

By Gundhramns Hammer
December 16, 2014
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If you are a poor, true peace loving person living in the Congo basin and who is lying in bed with one or both legs having been amputated (Fig. 1) because a nasty happy-trigger warlord shot you just to see you suffer or to scare you away from a mineral rich area, you would tell anyone that weapons are terrible things.

Figure 1. The consequences of war in the DRC. Source: ICRC.

On the other hand, if you are a suave politician who is defending the economic interests of a giant arms producing company established in a "peace loving First World" nation, chances are you would find a fancy way to tell people that "making weapons create jobs" and other nice sounding sweet things to excuse and keep alive forever this fucking business of weapons manufacturing.

Let us take a look at the second view on weapons in Europe:

Quote: 

Arms brokers organise and facilitate transfers in military equipment. Although brokering activities can be carried out in a legal framework, unscrupulous brokers operate with impunity by taking advantage of the weaknesses of and the differences between national laws and control regimes. In order to strengthen brokering controls in Europe, the European Union (EU) Member States adopted in 2003 a Common Position on the control of arms brokering (2003/468/CFSP).[GRIP, 2013, p. 3]

Read the full document: Click HERE.