Military Aid Research Paper
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Among the countless repercussions from September 11 is a new rationale for doling out security assistance: the war on terrorism. Not since anticommunism was used to excuse the arming and training of repressive governments during the cold war has there been such a broad, fail-safe rationale to provide military aid and arms to disreputable foreign militaries. Already the largest weapons supplier in the world, the U.S. government is now providing arms and military training to an even wider group of states in the name of “homeland security.”
At first, the Bush administration cited the need to garner support for the fighting in Afghanistan, opening the door for renewed aid to Pakistan, given its critical geopolitical role. Then Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were lavished with excess U.S. military equipment and other security assistance as a reward for providing basing or overflight rights to U.S. planes for Operation Enduring Freedom. Seemingly unaffected countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia, and even Kenya were also given military aid, supposedly for their potential contributions to U.S. military operations.
But even after the first round of fighting in Afghanistan wound down, the administration continued enlarging …show more content…
government has also initiated or strengthened ties to many regimes with horrendous human rights records. The State Department’s annual human rights report documents severe abuses committed by many of Washington’s top military aid recipients. For example, the report notes that Uzbekistan “is an authoritarian state” that permits no political opposition, imprisoning, torturing, and even killing suspected activists. According to the State Department the Philippine military apparently engaged in “extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention,” which worsened “as the Government sought to intensify its campaign against the terrorist Abu Sayyaf
Among the countless repercussions from September 11 is a new rationale for doling out security assistance: the war on terrorism. Not since anticommunism was used to excuse the arming and training of repressive governments during the cold war has there been such a broad, fail-safe rationale to provide military aid and arms to disreputable foreign militaries. Already the largest weapons supplier in the world, the U.S. government is now providing arms and military training to an even wider group of states in the name of “homeland security.”
At first, the Bush administration cited the need to garner support for the fighting in Afghanistan, opening the door for renewed aid to Pakistan, given its critical geopolitical role. Then Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan were lavished with excess U.S. military equipment and other security assistance as a reward for providing basing or overflight rights to U.S. planes for Operation Enduring Freedom. Seemingly unaffected countries like Azerbaijan, Armenia, and even Kenya were also given military aid, supposedly for their potential contributions to U.S. military operations.
But even after the first round of fighting in Afghanistan wound down, the administration continued enlarging …show more content…
government has also initiated or strengthened ties to many regimes with horrendous human rights records. The State Department’s annual human rights report documents severe abuses committed by many of Washington’s top military aid recipients. For example, the report notes that Uzbekistan “is an authoritarian state” that permits no political opposition, imprisoning, torturing, and even killing suspected activists. According to the State Department the Philippine military apparently engaged in “extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention,” which worsened “as the Government sought to intensify its campaign against the terrorist Abu Sayyaf