Source: NPR, Sidney Morning Herald
The White House announced on Monday that the U.S. will provide $20 billion in military sales to Arab countries in the next 10 years.
This is what Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has to say about the sales:
“We are helping to strengthen the defensive capabilities of our partners… We plan to initiate discussions with Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states on a proposed package of military technologies that will help support their ability to secure peace and stability in the Gulf region.”
Ok… let me read that again… “will help support their ability to secure peace and stability” by selling arms to the Middle East???
Of course, the measure has already found its critics. The director of the Human Rights Watch, Tom Malinowski, says that “[the sale of arms] will reduce pressure on Egypt and the Arab states to reform their politics. It’s another case of trying to purchase stability at the expense of liberty.” I especially agree with the critique expressed by Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association: “[the arms’ sale] approach in the Middle East can be like throwing gasoline on a brush fire.”
Let’s read this measure and Secretary Rice’s words in the context of the Church’s teaching on disarmament and deterrence:
From the Compendium of Social Doctrine:
The Church’s social teaching proposes the goal of “general, balanced and controlled disarmament”. The enormous increase in arms represents a grave threat to stability and peace. The principle of sufficiency, by virtue of which each State may possess only the means necessary for its legitimate defence, must be applied both by States that buy arms and by those that produce and furnish them. Any excessive stockpiling or indiscriminate trading in arms cannot be morally justified. Such phenomena must also be evaluated in light of international norms regarding the non-proliferation, production, trade and use of different types of arms. Arms can never be treated like other goods exchanged on international or domestic markets. (508)
Moreover, the Magisterium has made a moral evaluation of the phenomenon of deterrence. “The accumulation of arms strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see it as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterrence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them”. Policies of nuclear deterrence, typical of the Cold War period, must be replaced with concrete measures of disarmament based on dialogue and multilateral negotiations.
Emphasis added.
From the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
482. What is required for earthly peace?
Earthly peace requires the equal distribution and safeguarding of the goods of persons, free communication among human beings, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of justice and fraternity
486. What must be done to avoid war?
Because of the evils and injustices that all war brings with it, we must do everything reasonably possible to avoid it. To this end it is particularly important to avoid: the accumulation and sale of arms which are not regulated by the legitimate authorities; all forms of economic and social injustice; ethnic and religious discrimination; envy, mistrust, pride and the spirit of revenge. Everything done to overcome these and other disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war.
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