Floris vd Linden & Nasreddine el Khallouki, Cygnus Gymnasium 5a
We have created this blog on behalf of our school (Cygnus Gymnasium Amsterdam). It was intended that we would choose an economic/social problem and write a blog about it. We decided to choose the Arms industry, because we think it forms a major problem within our society. We hope that this blog is an eye opener.
Nasreddine El Khallouki & Floris van der Linden
Of course there are big groups and organisations against The Weapons trade. In april 2013, the United Nations came to an agreement regarding Weapon trade. 82 Nations (including the Netherlands) Agreed to the ‘Arms trade treaty’. This pact implies that the trade and production of some specific weapons, like cluster munitions and landmines, is forbidden. The pact also says that there must be an international regulation around the trade of all weapons, to counteract the illegal trade.
Also there is an ‘Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)’, who fights against the worldwide arm trade. The focus is on arms exports, although CAAT recognises that there is a close relationship with military purchase. They mainly do research and try to expose the myths around large government subsidies given to the arms industry. CAAT mainly contains of volunteers, who’re connected to then in collaboration with the European Network Against Arms Trade.
BAE systems, is one of the the world’s largest arms companies. The arms of BAE are sold around the world, the company has military customers in more than 100 countries. Research from the CAAT shows that BAE in 2010 was listed as having 95% of its sales as military. CAAT has long campaigned against BAE, highlighting accusations of corruption and political influence.
Originally, arms were invented to defend mankind against the power of nature. The first weapon was a bet. This primitive wooden sword, was there to hunt on animals. The people needed it to survive. Later on, people invented that weapons weren’t only good to survive, but that they can give you lots of power. As a result of this, there started wars around the whole planet. Kings fought each other with big armies, they created big kingdoms and they gained even more power. Especially in Europe, the weapon industry increased a lot, and because of the near rivals in that area, the weapons were getting better and better. Eventually, the advantage of Europe’s weapon industry was that big, they became the leaders of the world. When the Hispanic setted sail to America, the native americans stood no chance. Centuries later, this land would be known as the United States of America. The weapon industry is one of the most important source of income. But why?
Let’s start with the fact that is the USA, it’s legal to buy weapons. Estimated 45% of the americans have an rifle or handgun in their house. For us as Europeans, those numbers are incredible. We understand that 200 years ago americans needed a gun in order to protect themselves, but nowadays america has changed a lot. Does that indeed mean that this about firearms isn’t necessary?
One of the biggest organisations who wants to keep that law, is the NRA. The NRA stands for the rights of the citizens, who claim that with weapons they want to defend themselves against fools with guns. Every proponent with much influence gets an reward, and politicians are being controlled with questionnaires and voting behavior. They see themself as the defender of the Second amendment of the Constitution of the United States (the law who tolerates possession of weapons and wearing them). Because the NRA has worldwide lots of followers (5 million), they are very powerful and have much influence. But when we look at a recent shootings, Las Vegas shooting for example, we notice huge numbers of weapons were used. The man who did this just went to different shops in different states and bought as much as he could. So the NRA claims that with this law the national security grows, but in fact it increases the chance of a public attack.
War is one of the most horrible things humanity invented to solve their problems. For centuries, war was the only way to stand up for your right. You would think that man would learn from the lessons and the horrors of the past, when they saw how many people suffered from war. Worldwide there are thousands of monuments in memory of those who passed away, fighting for their fatherland. Hundred of millions of people died, many cities were destroyed and even more relatives mourned. That´s why most of the world’s population hates war. Because Arms trade is one of the most profitable industries in the world (45 billion €/year), you can clearly see that war will not stop. Especially because most of the arm companies are very close to governments. Due some people war is a beautiful ‘game’ and they make profit out of countries being in war. Why would they even bother about the lives of the victims? It’s about making money: War is a business.
In March 2011 a large quantity of people in Syria rose up to protest against their president/dictator Bashar al-Assad. They all went to the streets wanting to start a revolution against the dictatorial regime but what they didn’t know was the effect that this had to the safety of the civilians. Assad wasn’t very pleased with the protests and he was not going to surrender to them. He fought fire with fire and tried to suppress the civilians with an iron fists. It quickly went from protests to a civil war. Assad wasn’t afraid to hurt or kill his citizens so he commanded his army to attack his own people. After a certain time Assad fled the country when he saw he was in danger.
A lot of countries including European countries, Russia and The United States of America “helped” the protesters by arming rebel troops so they could contest Assad’s army. They were trained as soldiers in countries like Saudi-Arabia, Turkey and Jordan. In the meantime during the anarchy a portion of these trained and armed rebellious warriors began forming radical terrorist groups. They saw this revolution as an opportunity to form an army to conquer land and resources. What began as a big problem now escalated to an enormous problem which hasn’t just impact on the Syrian country but started a worldwide danger for terrorists.
IS, a very infamous terrorist group that rose in relevance in the springtime of 2011, expanded their conquered land rapidly cause of the arms they obtained by other countries. With their army they took over large oil refineries through which they got their wealth by trading oil in the black market. With their fortune they increased their army and influence in Syria by seizing more arms and training more troops.
According to American and Jordanian officials, arms exported from the USA to Jordan by the CIA meant for Syrian rebels have been consistently embezzled by Jordanian intelligence forces and traded in the black market. Some abducted products were reportedly used in a shooting that took place in November 2015 at Amman Jordan where two Americans and three policemen were executed.
The shady training program which began at 2013 for explicitly supplying Syrian rebels ran by the Central Intelligence Agency and various Arab Intelligence agencies has been put up aimed to depose Assad from his power. The USA and Saudi-Arabia are the largest contributors for this program. These troops were getting trained at using Kalashnikovs, anti-tank missiles, mortars and other arms.
As IS became an increasingly bigger existing problem Assad’s cooperation was needed to fight the terrorist groups since Assad still had influence referring to the Syrian army. With his help IS could get repressed really fast. So said Russian president Vladimir Putin at an UN confederation that not cooperation with Assad by the western countries fighting IS an enormous mistake is. Formal president of the United States nevertheless replied by saying that cooperating with Assad would mean that they are supporting a dictatorship and that even if they countered IS this cooperation could have consequences on the future Syrian governance and that Assad’s dictatorship could be even more forceful after they countered the terrorism. The then given military support from the western countries could backlash on them since Assad would get more powerful with this support.
Illegal gun trade takes place in every country in the world, but places where organized crime, armed conflicts and violence are frequently taking the upper hand appeal to have a bigger role in the trafficking and trade of arms. Civil wars and other conflicts are big targets of gun merchants whereby drug cartels and terrorist groups in these regions are getting provided of firearms. This however adds even more violence and instability to these territories.
People often think that these trades happen in large scaled operations where a large number of arms is getting exported from the black market. Nevertheless this is not the main system of the gun trafficking. The most important approach of the weapons export is the so called “ant trade”. Instead of shipping enormous amounts of arms in one shipment, often smaller and more frequent weapon shipments appear. These small numbers of weapon can accumulate in a much bigger sum of illegal weapons in the longer term. According to the Small Arms Survey 2013 thousands of weapons confiscated to Mexico could be traced back to the USA every year. These firearms often get obtained by individuals from gun shops where they end up exported to other countries. While people may think that these small transactions may be irrelevant the fraction of guns in Mexico from the USA is getting larger. Because this trade of weapons doesn’t happen in a big scale stopping this trade is really difficult.
An even larger component of the artillery trafficking problem is that certain governments also have a share in these bargains. This happens when governments purposely arm proxy groups (like the Syrian rebel troops for example) which could lead to instability and risk even after the conflict has been settled. This is also a very big factor in the growth of certain terrorist groups like IS, which emerged and got stronger by the obtained arms from other countries belonging to Syrian rebels to fight against Assad’s reign. These transfers can lead to even bigger issues like international terrorist attacks and instability in neighbouring countries.
While supporting rebel troops by supplying them arms may look as an agreeable solution for helping civilians to get their freedom, this mostly goes with a fundamental lack of control. Supplying civilians of weapons in times of crisis is a big risk since radical thought tend to take a lot of minds over. Instead of affording them weapons it’s more reasonable to seize to more diplomatic ways of helping the civilians.
A wellknown issue with many different opinions: Arms. Should they be legal? Should they be illegal? Is it there to defend yourself against nature? Or is it just there so we can feel safe? Especially recent activities with weapons, like the LA shootings, the Paris attacks and terrorists causes big social and economical problems. In this blog we’re going to talk about the whole industry behind the weapons, who buys them, who sells them, who builds them, and who uses them.
Dit is je eerste bericht. Klik op Bewerken om het aan te passen of te verwijderen, of maak een nieuw bericht aan. Als je wilt, kun je dit bericht gebruiken om lezers te vertellen waarom je deze blog bent begonnen en wat je ermee wilt doen. Als je hulp nodig hebt, kun je de vriendelijke mensen van de ondersteuningsforums hierom vragen.
The Arms Industry 