The UK arms trade Reviews

OK - I'll admit to being slightly biased here as I am considering entering the defence sector once I graduate, mainly as it is the best area in which to use my studies for research other than getting a PHd position. The idea that technology and the weapons the government and various companies are selling breeds war is rather a long way ...  Read the complete review

Of course we should bloody well sell arms abroad. There's nothing like a damn good war to sort out the men from the boys. If the pinko foreigners want to shoot hell out of each other, who are we to argue. And they might as well do it with British weapons. The Yanks think they're the bees knees when it comes to the old fighting ...  Read the complete review

England does not need the money, though if we are selling to a stable country then there is nothing wrong in my opinion. Though as somebody commented who can define a stable country? Well that is what people who work for the government are paid to do. So long as we do not do what the French did to us, by selling arms to the Argentineans when the ...  Read the complete review

I know about 10 percent of the British workforce rely indirectly on the Arms trade and that we are the worlds second biggest producers but cant we at least discriminate against third world countries run by Dictators and murderers or is the whole idea to sell to anyone therefore generating business rather than pacifying the conflicts of the globe. ...  Read the complete review

The arms trade is about two things: power and profit. As always the current system values these above the lives and freedoms of the people, especially those in developing countries, who are voiceless in our media, have little political power internationally, and so are easy targets for oppression and exploitation. Power: By giving trade ...  Read the complete review

One hundred U.S. dollars can buy either one AK-47 rifle or enough vitamin-A capsules to prevent blindness in 3,000 one-year-olds. One hundred million dollars can buy either ten million land mines or sufficient immunizations to protect 7.7 million children against six deadly childhood diseases. Eight hundred million dollars can buy either 23 F-16 ...  Read the complete review

The cold war is a good example of the need to beat the soviets to the market in terms of world arms trade. The US F-16 (multirole $25m fighter plane) was a huge success, and many nations continue to use this aircraft as their front line fighter. This aircraft was not made available to everybody, and those who were privileged to this aircraft ...  Read the complete review

It is an unfortunate fact of life that once something has been invented you cannot un-invent it and for good or ill it is here to stay. The other unfortunate fact of life is that if you don't invent something then someone else will. Whatever it is that you invent you will have some control over its use. You will have no control if ...  Read the complete review

In the Falklands war, the first Harrier aircraft lost was shot down by Argentinian fighters using British ammunition (according to John Pilger in SECRET AGENDA published by Vintage in 1998). In the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa it was British armoured cars that helped to kill innocent civilians. Idi Amin, the Ugandan ...  Read the complete review

The first question we need to answer here is whether we need weapons at all? It’s a sad fact of life that we do. If we didn’t, then there would be no need to develop weapons and nobody to sell them to. Unfortunately, humans can be very violent. You don’t need clever weapons and technology to inflict major suffering on other human ...  Read the complete review

A large part of our economy is based on the blood and misery of others. We sell high technology to the highest bidding despot and cash his cheque as he oppressed and kills the innocent. Morally, this is very wrong. But if we don't do it, some other country will move in to fill the hole we left. Despot still happy, our economy takes a big ...  Read the complete review

Selling weapons is morally wrong, infact the world in general would be a better place if weapons didn't exist, but they do and we have to live with the fact that wars happen and armies need guns. Someone somewhere will sell guns to people who want them, and there is money to be made from it. So surely rather than let illegal groups ...  Read the complete review

Every one is so short sighted today, everyone thinks that because the cold war is over we should disarm and deactivate our guns and missiles, it will never happen. We as a organism are dangerous, we are violent and in our whole history as a being we have always killed fough and searched for new ways to do this. The Arms Trade is ...  Read the complete review

Here’s a funny thing: it was once illegal in this country for two men to have consensual sex in private. You went to prison for it. Here’s another funny thing: in this country it’s still illegal to smoke a mildly psychoactive drug called marijuana in private. You go to prison for it. And here’s the funniest thing of all: in ...  Read the complete review

The arms trade is an integral part of our foriegn policy and strategic defence. If we stopped selling arms to other countries, a huge part of out influence on the world would be lost. As Britain is a stabilizing force the world would become a much nastier place. History, both ancient and modern, teaches us that nature abhorrs a ...  Read the complete review

The UK makes an absolute fortune from the arms trade. The weapons produced are sold to countries all over the world and despite proclamations made by successive governments that they will not be sold to countries which will prolong civil war and human suffering we know that this is not truly the case. So do we care? Is it important to you ...  Read the complete review

I once worked for a company who did business with another named 'Terminal Equipment'. I naively presumed they made some kind of electrical equipment. Not so. Someone commented about what an apt title they had. When I asked why, I was told they deal in the arms trade. I felt sick every time I came across the name after ...  Read the complete review

I accept that I have what many will say is an over simplified view of this, but I believe there is something fundamentally wrong with anyone who wants to join the army. If no one joined, there would be no armies, no need for guns, no wars. I have always believed that disputes between nations can be settled without bloodshed. Who wins an ...  Read the complete review

What a start to a pleasant evening. A healthy whinge on the ins and outs of arms dealing. I'm in two minds on this one, in a way. My heart tells me that arms dealing is a bad thing. I'm not a pacifist, not by a long chalk, I'd say I'm an above average agressive warmongerer.(This can be independently verified by my unfortunate ...  Read the complete review

I wouldn't describe myself as a pacifist; just watch my face when I'm stuck on the bus with someone smoking a fag behind me. But I am kind of uncomfortable with the idea that this country makes a bomb out of bombs and guns and so on. The argument that if we don't do it, someone else will is a kind of moral relativism I ...  Read the complete review