The immorality of the Arms trade

In the last few days a storm has blown up regarding the supply to Israel of 5000lb so called "bunker buster" bombs by the US through the UK, without apparently, the knowldge of the UK government.

The US is sending a very clear message to Israel. "Carry on, we approve of what you're doing". It's about time the rest of us gave an equally clear message by banning arms sales to Israel indefinately and disallowing transit of weapons through our respective countries.

But this is just a single incident in a trade which has profitted from the deaths of millions. So I propose a simple thought experiment.

Imagine I decided to wait, one night, in a rough neighbourhood where fights often break out between different gangs. I stand there with a small stall selling, to anyone who can pay, hand guns. I must know that the people who are going to buy them are quite likely to be intent on using them on their rivals, and I must know that that will most likely lead to deaths.

In any civilised country, if I were that irresponsible I would expect to be arrested and charged with illegal supply of weapons. I imagine the precise charges would be very extensive.

But, on the other hand, if I manufacture tanks, fighter planes, warships or any of the other machines of modern warfare and sell them to countries in unstable parts of the world who are engaged in hostilities which are resulting in the mass deaths of innocent civilians I'm praised as a captain of industry.

To the people who make weapons I ask this... do you know, exactly where every weapon you make will be used? Are you absolutely certain that the weapon you made today will never be used to kill innocents? If you can't honestly answer these questions, and unless you're the guy who decides where the weapons get sold, you can't, then you're taking part in an amoral act.

One argument is that if we stopped making weapons companies like BAE would have to cut jobs. That implies that there is some sort of moral balance to be made between our jobs and their lives. How can any persons job, something which can be replaced, ever be as important as another persons life, which can't.

It's long past the time when we should stop this immoral trade. If you work in the arms industry I implore you to take a good hard look at the results of your handiwork and get another job. No one wants to be responsible for the murder and maiming of children and families who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The irony is that the arms trade, far from making the world safer makes it more dangerous. So arguments that "I'm doing this to protect our country" are really pretty bogus. Perhaps that would be true if we never exported arms, but each time we do we lose control of them, and that can never make the world safer.

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