American Peace makers makes good money on weapons

Obama might have won the Nobel Peace price. But in 2011, the American arms sales is expected to increase by 30 percent to 50 billion US dollars.

U.S. arms sales will be little changed in fiscal 2010 but could surge by nearly one-third to USD 50 billion next year, the Pentagon’s chief arms seller told Reuters in an interview.

The U.S. government arms sales for the current year, which ends September 30, are likely to be close to USD 37.8 billion, said Vice Admiral Jeffrey Wieringa, director of the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency.

Sales in the last fiscal year totaled USD 38.1 billion.

“A lot of countries have built up cash reserves and they intend to continue buying,” Wieringa said.

The Pentagon agency, which overseas major foreign arms sales, is likely to notify Congress of a large number of arms sales over the next few months, said Wieringa, who oversees 12,995 different arms sales involving 218 countries and retires with total of USD 300 billion of requests still open.

Sales to Afghanistan alone totaled nearly USD 20 billion for fiscal years 2009 through 2011.

Among the biggest potential arms deals on the table now are huge fighter jet competitions in India and Brazil, various modernization programs for Saudi Arabia, and continuing support for arms sales to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Lebanon.

Source: Reuters

My comment:

What comes first: Sale of arms, or war?

Its like the question about the Chicken and the egg. Its seems that they are interconnected.