US weapon sales top $66 billion -78 per cent of all global arms sales

War, Destruction and Death

If the United States shared its record revenue from international weapon sales in 2011 with the world, every person on the planet would get about $9.50.

Weapons sales by the US tripled to a record high of $66.3 billion, pumped up by $33.4 billion in sales to Saudi Arabia, according to an annual report prepared for Congress by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

The sales by the US accounted for nearly 78 per cent of all global arms sales, which rose to $85.3 billion in 2011, the highest level seen since 2004, the report said.

Keeping in mind the United States is expected to reach a $16.4 trillion government debt by the end of the year, what does the figure of $66.3 billion in arms revenue represent?

- Earnings from weapons sales are expected to top spending on housing and urban development in the 2012 fiscal year ($49 billion), or homeland security ($47 billion), or energy ($43 billion) or justice ($33 billion).
- Those earnings are $4.7 billion shy of the government's spending on education ($71 billion).
- It is about one eleventh of US defense spending ($766 billion).
- It is more than eight times what the government set aside for foreign assistance in the 2012 fiscal year under its global health initiative, which focuses on the health of women and families and on innovation ($8.17 billion).
- It is over 400 times the amount set aside for clean energy under the government's global climate change initiative ($160 million).
- It is 484 times the amount set aside for sustainable landscapes - which are activities that reduce gas emissions using the land - under the same program ($137 million).

Note EU-Digest: Commenting on the US weapon sales report, Dr. James Jay Carafano, a director with the conservative US Heritage Foundation  "think-tank" noted, "the  angst over American arms sales is more than just misplaced. The “Blame America” campaign is part of cheerleading for a treaty that is the wrong answer for how to keep weapons out of the hands of bad people".


Read more: US weapon sales top $66 billion (that's $9.50 for everyone on the planet)