The Arms trade

The selling of arms to Saudi is a very controversial matter at the moment. Channel 4 and Newsnight have run several items on the disagreement between Crispin Blunt, the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, and other Committee members who objected to him trying to censor a report. The report was proposing that Britain should suspend the sale of arms to Saudi because, according to many reputable sources including Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam and the UN, there is strong evidence that Saudi bombs are being haphazardly used and are killing many civilians in Yemen.

Quite so Eloethan. I don't know if it's true but I read somewhere that we sell to the Saudi's and they supply Sunni rebels and extremists. No one has actually said where IS get their arms but........

I don't suppose we would bring an end to the arms trade if we stopped producing weapons. But we can hardly weep and wail and wring our hands at the sight of people being killed when we say the jobs that the arms trade provides in this country are more important than the lives that they destroy or ruin in other countries.

Someone needs to set an good example - but I don't suppose anyone will because there's too much money involved.

I hadnt actualy thought about the selling arms to "goodies" bit.

How do you know?

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." Of course action by this country alone will not bring an end to the arms trade, but we have a moral duty to show the way. To begin by actually applying the rules which now exist would be a good start. We should not sell arms to any country where they might be used against its own citizens. We are actually signed up to the 2014 Arms Treaty that says we will do this, the problem is we are not keeping our word.

The reasoning seems to be that if we give up manufacturing and selling arms to the Saudi's or whoever (to the pass on to various groups in Syria), some other country will, so it might as well be us getting the money. Also, if we don't provide the "goodies" with arms then there'll be no one to fight the "baddies" and so called Islamic State will win.

It's a mess.

I have no idea whatever what can be done about the arms trade. It is deeply entrenched in all economies, and is part of what contributes to the prosperity of us all. It is all quite unbearable to contemplate.

America has had no luck in reining back sales of arms to its own citizens so I can't imagine how it could be done on a world-wide scale, much as we would all love it. The genie is out of the bottle.

I am bumping this, because on another thread, people seem to think things can be done about the selling of arms.

Since all countries sell arms, and a lot of countries will sell to absolutely anyone ( we , along with some other countries, do have some embargoes/rules in place) then it matters not a jot .There will be no world peace involved if we stopped selling them tomorrow.

anyone one believing if we stopped selling arms all countries would follow us and we would have world peace is a hope I gave up at a young age

The arms trade is entrenched in all economies - I do not believe there is any way to stop or slow down this sickening production.