Earlier this month, the Pentagon and the State Division did their annual briefing on U.S. arms gross sales. The gist of the occasion was that the administration was happy with its efforts to advertise U.S. weapons exports throughout 2020, which they asserted had elevated by 2.8 p.c from the prior yr. This flood of latest arms gross sales was described as an “accomplishment.”
However pushing weapons value tens of billions of {dollars} out the door and abroad is in no way an accomplishment. It issues who the arms are offered to, and the way they’re getting used. By this measure, U.S. arms gross sales have been a dismal failure.
A living proof is a $23 billion arms bundle for the United Arab Emirates that narrowly escaped a vote of disapproval within the Senate on Dec. 9. The deal contains 50 F-35 fight plane, 18 armed MQ-9 drones, and greater than 15,000 bombs.
The UAE shouldn’t be receiving U.S. weapons presently. A major motive for stopping arms flows to the regime is its central position within the warfare in Yemen, a battle that has spawned what the United Nations has described because the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Over 112,000 individuals have died within the warfare, together with hundreds of civilians. For the majority of the battle, the Emirati army and the militias it has armed, educated, and financed had been the first floor power for the Saudi/UAE-led coalition that invaded Yemen in 2015. And though the UAE withdrew the majority of its floor forces in February, it continues to be a key participant via its help for 90,000 militia members concerned within the combating.
In keeping with studies by the Related Press, Human Rights Watch, and the Yemeni group Mwatana for Human Rights, the UAE and its allies have engaged in widespread torture in Yemen. And U.S. weapons provided to the UAE have ended up within the arms of extremist militias with ties to the terrorist group Al Qaeda within the Arabian Peninsula in addition to the Houthi rebels.
The UAE has additionally been closely concerned within the civil warfare in Libya, backing the forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar in his drive to overthrow the internationally acknowledged authorities there. The UAE has supplied a big selection of weapons to Haftar’s forces, in addition to launching drone strikes which have killed civilians and extended the warfare. The entire UAE’s actions in Libya are in blatant violation of a United Nations arms embargo.
Not solely have the UAE’s actions in Yemen and Libya generated huge humanitarian struggling, however they’ve additionally made it simpler for extremist and terrorist teams to function in these nations, to the detriment of long-term U.S. pursuits within the Center East and North Africa. Because the Worldwide Disaster Group has famous with respect to the position of the UAE and different outdoors actors in Libya in stoking the warfare there: “extended battle nearly actually will strengthen armed teams, together with these linked to radical Islamist organizations similar to al-Qaeda and ISIS.”
Given the entire above, the Biden administration ought to reverse the offers to promote fighter planes, drones, and bombs to the UAE as one in every of its first actions when it takes workplace in January.
The UAE will not be the one U.S. arms recipient that ought to get a re-evaluation in gentle of its human rights document. Egypt, which receives $1.3 billion in annual army support from america, has locked up hundreds of political prisoners, subjecting a lot of them to extreme torture; waged a scorched earth counter-terror marketing campaign within the Sinai that has pushed hundreds of individuals from their properties and resulted within the killing of enormous numbers of civilians; and performed a damaging position within the area, by, for instance, facilitating the UAE’s position in Libya. The US ought to scale back its army support to the Sisi regime and situation future help on main enhancements in its human rights document.
Within the Philippines, the Duterte regime has gunned down hundreds of civilians and arrested hundreds extra with out trial underneath the guise of its warfare on medication. These actions ought to disqualify the Philippines from receiving weapons of any type from america. But america has provided small arms and has a deal within the works to supply assault helicopters.
And in Nigeria, the Trump administration reversed a ban on gross sales of Tremendous Tucano gentle plane to probably the most repressive regimes on the planet, whose army has engaged in such widespread human rights abuses with such impunity that it has sparked investigations by the Worldwide Legal Court docket.
The above-mentioned instances are only a few examples of the place U.S. arms provides have completed way more hurt than good. The Biden administration can and will revise U.S. arms export insurance policies to prioritize human rights and long-term safety over short-term earnings and questionable army alliances. That might be an accomplishment value bragging about.
William D. Hartung is the director of the Arms and Safety Program on the Middle for Worldwide Coverage.