Gregg Carlstrom and Evan Hill
AlJazeera.net
Western weapons are killing peaceful Arab protesters all over the Middle East, said Gregg Carlstrom and Evan Hill. In the five years leading up to the Arab Spring, Western countries sold more than $2 billion worth of tanks, guns, tear gas, and other weaponry to the five countries that have faced “and violently combated” popular uprisings: Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen. The U.S. is, of course, by far the biggest arms dealer, selling or giving more than $1 billion worth to Egypt alone in the past five years.
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But the U.S. wasn’t the only one. Sanctions largely prevented it from arming Libya and Syria, and that’s where Italy, France, and the U.K. picked up the slack. Once images of bloody protesters holding up weapons stamped “Made in the USA” or “Made in Italy” began circulating on the Internet, those governments suspended “certain arms sales.”
But already, some countries are “ready to return to business as usual.” The U.S. is currently considering selling Bahrain more than $50 million worth of Humvees and missiles, even as the monarchy there kills its own people. “As long as billions of dollars in profit remain available, many countries seem eager to put memories of the Arab Spring behind them.”
