US Leads The World In Military Arms Sales.

The Congressional Research Service has found that global arms sales rose to $37 billion in 2004, the highest level in four years. US companies like Lockheed Martin and Boeing saw $12.4 billion in weapons contracts, more than twice of that of Russia, the second largest arms exporter.

The US had a long history of arming, training, and aiding some of the world’s most repressive regimes. In Uzbekistan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Columbia, Indonesia, and the Sudan, US weapons and military training is used against civilians. In the last decade the US sold $177.5 billion in arms to foreign nations. In 2003 along, the Pentagon and State Department delivered $5.7 billion in nations in the developing world that are riddled with poverty. Nearly half of these weapons went to countries with undemocratic regimes and poor human rights records.