Massive hurl alert! 
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-01-19-fishman_x.htm
America's war on terrorism overlooks small-arms trade
By Ted C. Fishman
As United Nations inspectors get closer to unearthing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, President Bush is pushing U.S. allies ever harder to accept the logic of pre-emptive strikes that would end the possibility that Iraq would use such weapons. Indeed, denying murderous dictators chemical, biological and nuclear weapons is insurance we all can use.
This focus, however, ignores the weapons terrorists and dictators rely on the most and that already kill vast numbers every year: small weapons — the pistols, land mines, assault rifles and handheld grenade and rocket launchers that flood the world.
At last week's announcement that the government is searching for ways to protect U.S. airliners from terrorist attacks using shoulder-held missile launchers, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge complained that there was "no quick fix to the problem." The reason may lie chiefly in the USA's unwillingness to support coordinated international controls on small weapons — a vivid illustration of how the administration's worries about offending the National Rifle Association (NRA) crowd make the world a far more dangerous place.
The overwrought fears of American gun owners are bollixing up the war on terrorism. Arms move easily in a globalized world, and until that world comes together to stem their flow, new weapons and the ordnance left over from old wars will continue to fall into our enemies' hands.
The United States has worked hard to vanquish terrorists' support networks but moved hesitantly to staunch the pipeline of small arms. At the 2001 U.N. Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, the United States fought hard against a proposal to monitor international arms shipments. The Bush administration fears cooperative enforcement will lead to foreign powers dictating U.S. gun laws.
John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary of State for arms control and international security, told delegates that the United States does "not support measures that prohibit civilian possession of small arms," defined generally by the administration as automatic rifles, machine guns, shoulder-fired missile and rocket systems. That Bolton's pronouncement closely aped the NRA's position is no accident. Former Georgia congressman Bob Barr, an NRA board member, was part of the official U.S. delegation.
The rocket attack on an Israeli Arkia Airlines flight out of Kenya in November was executed with old Soviet rockets that had wound their way through the worldwide weapons bazaar. Far more threatening than the trade in old materiel, however, is the thriving global small-arms industry that puts a steady stream of new, better and cheaper weapons not just in the hands of a few terrorists, but in hundreds of millions of hands as well. The U.N. estimates that up to half of all small arms worldwide are held illegally by non-governmental groups: criminals, warlord armies, terrorists and the like.
The results, not surprisingly, are deadly. Small arms have been the weapons of choice in 47 of the 49 largest conflicts since 1992. Victim counts range widely. The reputable International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a non-profit group of medical organizations representing more than 60 countries, puts the number at 6 million and estimates that half of the victims were killed directly by small arms.
Countries once bootstrapped their way up the industrial chain by making toys, T-shirts and pajamas. Now arms production follows the same cycle. In 2002, the Small Arms Survey in Geneva counted more than 1,000 companies in 98 countries involved in some aspect of small-arms production.
As with clothing, arms factories in low-rent locales make brand-name weapons. If export controls are too stringent in one country, arms producers simply farm out the manufacturing process to more lenient jurisdictions. Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, North and South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey all export arms made under contract from major arms-producing countries.
Brand-name weapons spawn down-market copies. Israel, South Africa and Croatia sell knockoffs of the AK-47. Often, classics are refashioned for the new market; assault rifles and rocket launchers are now made lightweight and idiot proof, perfect for child soldiers.
The glut in small arms drives down prices. A rifle that sprays hundreds of rounds a minute costs no more than a pair of designer sneakers. Guns sell next to soap in the markets of Mogadishu, Somalia, where there are 1 million assault rifles for 1.3 million people. An Egyptian AK-47 can cost $150; a cheap U.S. rifle, $100. Cash-strapped soldiers in Indonesia sell surplus automatic rifles to enemy rebels for $6. To enemy rebels!
In July 2001, at the U.N. conference, a proposal to ban the transfer of handheld missile launchers and missiles — the type that was used against the Israeli flight — to non-governmental parties received nearly universal support. This so-called leakage to rebels, terrorists and criminals is one of the fundamental problems with small arms. Among its strongest supporters were the nations of Africa, where small weapons destabilize a whole continent.
The United States' delegation fought the ban — and prevailed.
The U.S. group also opposed proposals to register new weapons with identifiable, inalterable serial numbers. Indelibly marked weapons would be easier to trace back to their manufacturers and brokers. The 5,000 to 10,000 small rockets that now belong to non-state combatants — including terrorists who have made U.S. aircraft some of their priority targets — somehow leaked out of government channels worldwide and into the black market. If a worldwide serial-number tracking system existed, the complicit factories and shippers could be rooted out.
The United States and its allies could exert some powerful incentives against arms manufacturers whose products end up in the hands of terrorists. Many of the market players, for instance, operate out of newly capitalist European countries that long to join NATO, the World Trade Organization or the European Union. Just as the United States has insisted that countries with rogue banks reel them in, it could exert pressure on these countries to ensure that their arms makers act more responsibly. The arms makers and brokers who undermine our security ought to expect pre-emptive deterrence, as any enemy threat.
Yet it seems that when it comes to small arms, fears that international rules will impinge on American gun makers and gun owners have given the world's most lethal trade a pass.
Ted C. Fishman is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and Worth and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-01-19-fishman_x.htm
America's war on terrorism overlooks small-arms trade
By Ted C. Fishman
As United Nations inspectors get closer to unearthing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, President Bush is pushing U.S. allies ever harder to accept the logic of pre-emptive strikes that would end the possibility that Iraq would use such weapons. Indeed, denying murderous dictators chemical, biological and nuclear weapons is insurance we all can use.
This focus, however, ignores the weapons terrorists and dictators rely on the most and that already kill vast numbers every year: small weapons — the pistols, land mines, assault rifles and handheld grenade and rocket launchers that flood the world.
At last week's announcement that the government is searching for ways to protect U.S. airliners from terrorist attacks using shoulder-held missile launchers, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge complained that there was "no quick fix to the problem." The reason may lie chiefly in the USA's unwillingness to support coordinated international controls on small weapons — a vivid illustration of how the administration's worries about offending the National Rifle Association (NRA) crowd make the world a far more dangerous place.
The overwrought fears of American gun owners are bollixing up the war on terrorism. Arms move easily in a globalized world, and until that world comes together to stem their flow, new weapons and the ordnance left over from old wars will continue to fall into our enemies' hands.
The United States has worked hard to vanquish terrorists' support networks but moved hesitantly to staunch the pipeline of small arms. At the 2001 U.N. Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, the United States fought hard against a proposal to monitor international arms shipments. The Bush administration fears cooperative enforcement will lead to foreign powers dictating U.S. gun laws.
John Bolton, the U.S. undersecretary of State for arms control and international security, told delegates that the United States does "not support measures that prohibit civilian possession of small arms," defined generally by the administration as automatic rifles, machine guns, shoulder-fired missile and rocket systems. That Bolton's pronouncement closely aped the NRA's position is no accident. Former Georgia congressman Bob Barr, an NRA board member, was part of the official U.S. delegation.
The rocket attack on an Israeli Arkia Airlines flight out of Kenya in November was executed with old Soviet rockets that had wound their way through the worldwide weapons bazaar. Far more threatening than the trade in old materiel, however, is the thriving global small-arms industry that puts a steady stream of new, better and cheaper weapons not just in the hands of a few terrorists, but in hundreds of millions of hands as well. The U.N. estimates that up to half of all small arms worldwide are held illegally by non-governmental groups: criminals, warlord armies, terrorists and the like.
The results, not surprisingly, are deadly. Small arms have been the weapons of choice in 47 of the 49 largest conflicts since 1992. Victim counts range widely. The reputable International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a non-profit group of medical organizations representing more than 60 countries, puts the number at 6 million and estimates that half of the victims were killed directly by small arms.
Countries once bootstrapped their way up the industrial chain by making toys, T-shirts and pajamas. Now arms production follows the same cycle. In 2002, the Small Arms Survey in Geneva counted more than 1,000 companies in 98 countries involved in some aspect of small-arms production.
As with clothing, arms factories in low-rent locales make brand-name weapons. If export controls are too stringent in one country, arms producers simply farm out the manufacturing process to more lenient jurisdictions. Brazil, India, Indonesia, Iran, North and South Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey all export arms made under contract from major arms-producing countries.
Brand-name weapons spawn down-market copies. Israel, South Africa and Croatia sell knockoffs of the AK-47. Often, classics are refashioned for the new market; assault rifles and rocket launchers are now made lightweight and idiot proof, perfect for child soldiers.
The glut in small arms drives down prices. A rifle that sprays hundreds of rounds a minute costs no more than a pair of designer sneakers. Guns sell next to soap in the markets of Mogadishu, Somalia, where there are 1 million assault rifles for 1.3 million people. An Egyptian AK-47 can cost $150; a cheap U.S. rifle, $100. Cash-strapped soldiers in Indonesia sell surplus automatic rifles to enemy rebels for $6. To enemy rebels!
In July 2001, at the U.N. conference, a proposal to ban the transfer of handheld missile launchers and missiles — the type that was used against the Israeli flight — to non-governmental parties received nearly universal support. This so-called leakage to rebels, terrorists and criminals is one of the fundamental problems with small arms. Among its strongest supporters were the nations of Africa, where small weapons destabilize a whole continent.
The United States' delegation fought the ban — and prevailed.
The U.S. group also opposed proposals to register new weapons with identifiable, inalterable serial numbers. Indelibly marked weapons would be easier to trace back to their manufacturers and brokers. The 5,000 to 10,000 small rockets that now belong to non-state combatants — including terrorists who have made U.S. aircraft some of their priority targets — somehow leaked out of government channels worldwide and into the black market. If a worldwide serial-number tracking system existed, the complicit factories and shippers could be rooted out.
The United States and its allies could exert some powerful incentives against arms manufacturers whose products end up in the hands of terrorists. Many of the market players, for instance, operate out of newly capitalist European countries that long to join NATO, the World Trade Organization or the European Union. Just as the United States has insisted that countries with rogue banks reel them in, it could exert pressure on these countries to ensure that their arms makers act more responsibly. The arms makers and brokers who undermine our security ought to expect pre-emptive deterrence, as any enemy threat.
Yet it seems that when it comes to small arms, fears that international rules will impinge on American gun makers and gun owners have given the world's most lethal trade a pass.
Ted C. Fishman is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine and Worth and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
