I know this may end up being a controversial topic for which no single answer will be able to claim being correct, but i sometimes wonder if some of the world's major conflicts, both overt and covert, aren't the results of careful manipulations by Arms dealers and International Weapons manufacturers? If the world should enter into a state of total peace, wouldn't this billion dollar industry collapse? Wouldn't it be in the interests of major players in the industry to fan the embers of violence where possible? And if they don't even exist, don't you think it is possible for them to create an enabling environment to enable their stock of weapons be needed? Just my random thoughts. What is your view?

yes! Not only do manufactures sell to Mexican drug cartels, but also the cartels enemies as well. Manufacturers also have established contracts with many goverments ingulfed in civil conflicts. Weapons are sold to both sides of conflicts. However nuclear weapons are not sold to everyone. We will also sell weapons to contribute to destabilization endeavers whos winner is essential for access to natural and raw resourses.

I don't think so. There were wars when people made their own weapons ie swords, spears, bows, catapults.
The world seemed a more violent place in those times.

Also the US government sells to Mexican drug cartels

Also there are more religious zealots willing to kill for "god."

A war profiteer is any personor organization that profits from warfare or by selling
weapons and other goods to parties at war. It's All Big Money. Global violence. Who Cares?
Money. Money. Money.

Can't blame them if they think they are gonna get 72 virgins when they die.

Allah ain't God.

And, they get to choose how many of those virgins will be young boys.


Check what weapons are used in any part of the world.
You will find that Russia and China provide small arms, tanks, helicopters, mines, yada-yada-yada.

yes, eye agree.

The revelations just keep coming. Egads! People actually make money out of selling arms? Then I can take a leap of logic and suggest that the arms dealers create the wars!!!

I think I'm on to something here. I might write a book about it.

U.S. sales of arms overseas totaled more than 3/4 of the global weapons market in 2011.

Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran ’s regional ambitions, accordingto a new study for Congress.
Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.
The American weapons sales total was an “extraordinary increase” over the$21.4 billion in deals for 2010, the study found, and was the largest single-year sales total in the history of United States arms exports. The previous high was in fiscal year 2009, when American weapons sales overseas totaled nearly $31 billion.
A worldwide economic decline had suppressed armssales over recent years. But increasingtensions with Iran drove a set of Persian Gulf nations — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emiratesand Oman — to purchase American weapons at record levels.
These Gulf states do not share a border with Iran, and their arms purchases focused on expensive warplanesand complex missile defense systems.
The report was prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, a division of the Library of Congress. The annual study, written by Richard F.Grimmett and Paul K.Kerr and delivered toCongress on Friday, is considered the most detailed collection of unclassified arms sales data available to the public.
The agreements with Saudi Arabia included the purchase of 84 advanced F-15 fighters, a variety of ammunition, missiles and logisticssupport, and upgrades of 70 of the F-15 fighters in the current fleet.
Sales to Saudi Arabialast year also included dozens of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, allcontributing to a total Saudi weapons deal from the UnitedStates of $33.4 billion, according to the study.
The United Arab Emirates purchased a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, an advanced antimissileshield that includes radars and is valued at $3.49 billion, as well as 16 Chinook helicopters for $939 million.
Oman bought 18 F-16 fighters for $1.4 billion.
In keeping with recent trends, most of the weapons purchases, worth about $71.5 billion, were made by developing nations, with about $56.3 billion of that from the United States.
Other significant weapons deals by the United States last year included a$4.1 billion agreement with India for 10 C-17 transport planes andwith Taiwan for Patriot antimissile batteries valued at$2 billion — an arms deal that outraged officials in Beijing.
To compare weapons sales over various years, the study used figures in2011 dollars, with amounts for previous years adjusted for inflation to provide a consistent measurement.
A policy goal of the United States has been to work with Arab allies in the Persian Gulf to knit together a regional missile defense system to protect cities, oil refineries, pipelines and military bases from an Iranian attack.
The effort has included deploying radars to increase the range of early warning coverage across the Persian Gulf, as well as introducing command, control and communicationssystems that could exchange that information with new batteries of missile interceptors sold to the individual nations.
The missile shield in the Persian Gulf is being built on a country-by-country basis — with these costly arms sales negotiated bilaterally between the United States and individual nations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html?smid=tw-nytimes