Trump extends travel ban to 6 countries — but is OK with selling arms to those same places
If these places are so threatening, the U.S. shouldn't continuing to give their governments the very weapons that can make them even more unsafe.
Jan. 31, 2020, 6:35 PM EST
The Trump administration announced Friday that it is adding six new countries to the existing travel ban, joining the seven already on the list. The ban means that citizens living in these nations cannot get visas to travel to the United States without getting a special waiver, dramatically reducing the number of people from these countries visiting the United States. The administration’s rationale for the ban is that conditions in those countries, especially the level of terrorism,raised the risk of allowing their citizens into the U.S. to an unacceptable level.
In these places, U.S. arms have not brought stability, much less peace. Instead, in many cases they have led to increased homicide rates and fed state-sponsored violence.
But if the administration is correct about the risks posed from the countries on the newly expanded list, why does it continue to allow the U.S. government and companies to sell weapons to more than half of them? During the Trump administration alone, the U.S. has sold Libya, Yemen, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria and Tanzania (the last five of which are new additions to the travel ban) everything from handguns and automatic weapons to light attack aircraft. Even more damning, since 2002 the U.S. has sold roughly $409 millionworth of these weapons to 10 of these 13 nations despite their troubled political systems, poor human rights records, high levels of corruption and their participation in a range of conflicts.
The Trump administration is only the most recent administration to embrace what they believe to be the strategic and economic benefits of arms sales, while turning a blind eye to the downstream consequences of how these arms can increase terrorism and dysfunction in the countries to which they are sent.
For the White House, arms sales appear to be the ultimate tool of foreign policy: a flexible way to support allies and partners, who face internal challenges such as terrorism and insurgency, as well as external threats from dangerous neighbors, without putting American boots on the ground. And it’s a tool for exerting leverage over the recipients of American weapons that offers an economic boon to U.S. companies.
Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, arms sales and transfers have been a central tactic in the U.S. war on terror. From 2002 through 2019, the United States sold about $215 billion worth of weapons to 169 countries, as calculated by the NGO Security Assistance Monitor, including many where the risks should have been obvious. This list includes autocratic nations such as Saudi Arabia andNigeria that have used American weapons to kill civilians at home and abroad, nations such as Colombia and Paraguay while they were gripped by civil conflict, and places such as the United Arab Emirates and Uganda that host well-established black markets for American weapons.
.
If these places are so threatening, the U.S. shouldn't continuing to give their governments the very weapons that can make them even more unsafe.
Jan. 31, 2020, 6:35 PM EST
The Trump administration announced Friday that it is adding six new countries to the existing travel ban, joining the seven already on the list. The ban means that citizens living in these nations cannot get visas to travel to the United States without getting a special waiver, dramatically reducing the number of people from these countries visiting the United States. The administration’s rationale for the ban is that conditions in those countries, especially the level of terrorism,raised the risk of allowing their citizens into the U.S. to an unacceptable level.
In these places, U.S. arms have not brought stability, much less peace. Instead, in many cases they have led to increased homicide rates and fed state-sponsored violence.
But if the administration is correct about the risks posed from the countries on the newly expanded list, why does it continue to allow the U.S. government and companies to sell weapons to more than half of them? During the Trump administration alone, the U.S. has sold Libya, Yemen, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria and Tanzania (the last five of which are new additions to the travel ban) everything from handguns and automatic weapons to light attack aircraft. Even more damning, since 2002 the U.S. has sold roughly $409 millionworth of these weapons to 10 of these 13 nations despite their troubled political systems, poor human rights records, high levels of corruption and their participation in a range of conflicts.
The Trump administration is only the most recent administration to embrace what they believe to be the strategic and economic benefits of arms sales, while turning a blind eye to the downstream consequences of how these arms can increase terrorism and dysfunction in the countries to which they are sent.
For the White House, arms sales appear to be the ultimate tool of foreign policy: a flexible way to support allies and partners, who face internal challenges such as terrorism and insurgency, as well as external threats from dangerous neighbors, without putting American boots on the ground. And it’s a tool for exerting leverage over the recipients of American weapons that offers an economic boon to U.S. companies.
Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, arms sales and transfers have been a central tactic in the U.S. war on terror. From 2002 through 2019, the United States sold about $215 billion worth of weapons to 169 countries, as calculated by the NGO Security Assistance Monitor, including many where the risks should have been obvious. This list includes autocratic nations such as Saudi Arabia andNigeria that have used American weapons to kill civilians at home and abroad, nations such as Colombia and Paraguay while they were gripped by civil conflict, and places such as the United Arab Emirates and Uganda that host well-established black markets for American weapons.
.