Arms Exports - United States

Selling weapons to all sides in the middle east and then offer to negotiate peace -- I thought I was a cynic. Wow. Even better sell weapons to nuclear powers on the same subcontinent who don't life each other. Well done.

I thought the same thing. To be fair, though, I would think it's more likely that if things really blow up in the Middle East, the countries we export to in the Middle East would be united because they are fighting a common foe.

eh... while I don't disagree necessarily that the US ought to stop selling arms to certain countries... if they did of course they would only be allowing Russia, the UK, China, etc. to step in and supply the demand as they have in many other places. The United States did not create the conflict in the Middle East nor the demand for weapons there. Israel was originally armed mostly by the Czechs. Other sides got their arms from the British, the French, and the Soviets primarily. and of course these conflicts go back far far longer than 1948, back to before the United States even existed, actually.

iDon is mostly right, too. The US sees Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar as a check on the power of Iran, not Israel. They see Egypt and Turkey as playing a stabilizing role in the region contrary to Syria or Lebanon. They see Iraq as a bulwark against the expansion of ISIS, and Afghanistan and Pakistan as a check on the Taleban.

Your comment is very enlightening.

We are trying to do the same thing with China and North Korea.

How is this "all sides"? Nothing to Iran or Syria. The rest of these countries have made some sort of peace with each other (often with US pressure and help in diplomacy).

Singapore was a surprise.

Don't take that too litterally, singapore is basically a huge port that buys and redistributes many types of goods, including arms. They don't actually buy these for themselves

i only got it because i remembered how high it is ranked among arms exporters. Being so tiny i thought "it has to get those arms from somewhere"

Scary how? They are a huge regional power that is a positive influence for its neighbors.

Only one European country here! Also a bit of Turkey but still, I guess we make our own weapons.

You don't have to. The US has weapons at our bases in Europe and we also maintain war reserve stocks in many European countries. We have nuclear weapons stored in Europe, too, but we don't give out the codes to detonate them.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot...

more like Middle-East map quiz lol

They have an insurgency still going on, unfriendly neighbour and they are the only African country outside African Union.