Scott interviews Jeff Abramson about America’s convoluted process for selling weapons to foreign governments. The arms trade is a multi-billion dollar industry for private firms like Raytheon—but it’s also a process that is highly controlled by the U.S. government, muddying the incentives and leading to a public-private partnership with very little accountability and unfailingly terrible results. Abramson describes the circular way in which weapons companies and various branches of government push both their own selfish interests and what they believe to be in the country’s interest, to create a self-perpetuating system that no one can quite take the blame for. The result, tragically, is nothing but money in the pockets of the arms manufacturers and more dead civilians abroad.
Discussed on the show:
“Leahy Law Fact Sheet” (United States Department of State)
“U.S. to Allow Expanded Landmine Use” (Arms Control Association)
Jeff Abramson is a senior fellow for conventional arms control and transfers at the Arms Control Association. Follow him on Twitter @jeffabramson.
This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: NoDev NoOps NoIT, by Hussein Badakhchani; The War State, by Mike Swanson; WallStreetWindow.com; Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott; Listen and Think Audio; TheBumperSticker.com; and LibertyStickers.com.
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Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from this website. He’s the author of the 2017 book, Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan. Visit https://scotthorton.org