UPDATE (6:40pm):"The USA is responsible for 48 percent of the world total, distantly followed by the UK, France, Japan and China with 4 to 5 percent each," the Swedish government-funded institute added.
It said U.S. spending was behind about 80 percent of the gain in 2005.
Spending on weapons accounted for 2.5 percent of the world's gross domestic product, or average spending of $173 per capita.
Another tack on weapons and that little old problem of reality, chez Arms Control Wonk.
3 comments:
The "City of God" DVD comes with a documentary about the state of war in Brazilian slums, which compellingly pins a lot of responsibility on U.S. gun makers. I found both profound and well worth watching. The Nick Cage movie "Angel of Death" also is on point and was very good, I thought.
I am afraid, that some how you missed the crux of the matter; the U.S. weapons are tools for democracy, unlike the other's, which are either WMD's or implements of terror.
Check out Thomas Pogge's work on the weapons trade. There's a terrific essay by him in the book, "Global Justice," edited by Pogge that lays out the argument for how the weapons trade structurally maintains not only urban crime in poverty-ridden cities, but also dictatorships and poverty the world over.
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