Accusing the Trump administration of putting the U.S. economy over global human rights, critics on Monday denounced the White House’s plan to loosen restrictions on arms sales and enlist diplomats to help push American-made weapons to foreign governments.
Human rights advocates expressed concern that more weapons sales could fuel further violence around the world.
“As the world’s biggest arms exporter, the U.S. has a special responsibility to ensure no U.S. weapons fall into the wrong hands,” Patrick Wilcken, an arms control researcher for Amnesty International told Newsweek. “Time and again we have seen U.S. supplied weaponry going astray and ending up in the hands of armed groups, or being supplied to States with poor human rights records which misuse them.”
“Arms are not an ordinary commodity and should not be treated as such,” added Jeff Abramson, senior fellow at the Arms Control Association.
A senior administration official told Reuters that under the new plan, military and commercial attaches and diplomats will ideally be “unfettered to be salesmen for this stuff, to be promoters.”
The U.S. racked up $42 billion in arms sales in 2017. And now the president appears eager to use increased military exports, including fighter jets, drones, and artillery—no matter the consequences around the world.
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