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At last, George W has carved his legacy in stone, and it truly is monumental. Working with military contractors that backed his presidential runs, Bush has become history’s number one gunrunner! He has now sold or given away more war weaponry to more countries than any other U.S. president. Hoo boy – let’s hear it for George.
This year has been his best. Bush’s Pentagon sales force, which acts as broker between U.S. weapons makers and foreign buyers, has produced $32 billion in sales this fiscal year, a giant leap from the $12 billion in business it generated in 2005. Fighter jets, missiles, tanks, drones, helicopters, warships, you-name-it – the Pentagon has been turned into a Weapons R Us mega-store for the world. Y’all come!
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There’s been a rush on sales this year, because it’s the last of the Bush-Cheney reign, and the U.S. industry fears that the next administration might tighten up a bit on such proliferation. Bush & Company are eager to re-arm Iraq, for example, hoping to buy its long term acquiescence to a permanent U.S. military presence in that increasingly-balky nation, so there’s been a big push there.
But sales are – pardon the pun – booming all around the world. In addition to Iraq, recent hot new markets include Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Georgia, India, Morocco, and Pakistan. In Bush’s first term, sales to these governments totaled less than a billion dollars, but sales in the past four years have – pardon another pun – exploded to nearly $14 billion.
A Bush appointee who helps coordinate some of the biggest arms sales, insists that such profligate spreading of weaponry will cement George’s legacy, because “This is about building a more secure world.” Yeah, sure – security is no longer a warm blanket, it’s having a bomb.
“Washington’s weapon sales surge,” The Kansas City Star, September 14, 2008.