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-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted
from the Aug. 1, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
U.S. arms dealers smell a big sale in their future.
They want to ply their wares in Latin America. And they've lined up some Congressional leaders and Defense Secretary William Perry to help them.
They're looking at a $4-billion sale of F-16 fighterbombers. And that's just for starters. For the profits from such a sale they'd stop at nothing.
The potential buyers are the armed forces of Chile, Brazil and Argentina. These are some that can afford to buy the F16s. The civilian governments of Argentina and Brazil are resisting the sales.
The seller is Lockheed Martin Corporation, maker of the F16. Lockheed's owners and management want the profits on that $4 billion. It's no deterrent to them that these sales could promote a regional arms race draining funds for already sparse social services, or that the buildup might help turn a skirmish between local ruling classes into a major war.
But a legal obstacle to their plans remains. During the late 1970s, the Carter administration imposed restrictions on arms sales to Latin American countries.
At that time unpopular and brutal military dictatorships openly ran each of the three countries now targeted for
sales. All were either installed or supported by Washington. But they had lost their usefulness to U.S. imperialism.
Now in each of these countries a civilian government holds office--while a still-formidable military staff keeps its hands on power.
In Argentina and Brazil this military competes for government funding with civilian projects. In Chile, army head and former fascist head of government Gen. Augosto Pinochet--installed via a bloody U.S.-backed coup in 1973-has a guaranteed high military budget.
He had it written into the constitution before he nominally turned over the government to civilians.
The New York Times reported July 21 that Perry is urging the Clinton administration to ease off the restrictions so Lockheed can make the sales.
Arms dealers and some legislators are pushing Perry and Clinton to end the restrictions. They argue that it's worth 40,000 jobs. That's more popular than arguing that it's worth hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for Lockheed and other death dealers--which is really the point.
If Congress voted for a jobs program--for example, one to renew the infrastructure of U.S. cities--this could create millions more jobs. And improve life for tens of millions of people.
But this is not on their agenda, nor on anyone else's in official Washington.
Lockheed's vice president for Latin America says he is concerned the restrictions will force the Latin American countries to buy inferior planes from competitors in Europe and Asia. He says--if you can believe it--he is worried they won't get a big enough bang for the buck.
French weapons dealers have recently sold 200 fighter planes to seven countries in Latin America. This is just another aspect of the French rulers' inter-imperialist rivalry with the U.S. ruling class.
The Argentine and Brazilian governments have cut military expenditures and the size of their armies to half or less of what they were 10 years ago. The Argentine defense minister said recently that allowing the F-16 sales would be "destabilizing," and that Argentina couldn't afford the planes.
Still, Lockheed and the other arms manufacturers look forward to the first sale. They know the capitalist class in each country won't want to be outgunned by potential rivals on their borders, and one sale will lead to the others.
Once all the planes are sold, it will be in the interest of the U.S. arms manufacturers that they be used. A local war could fill their coffers again after it fills coffins with the local population. They might even hire "retired" CIA agents to stir one up.
Seem far-fetched? There's a reason they're called merchants of death.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@wwpublish.com. For subscription info send message to: ww-info@wwpublish.com. Web: http://www.workers.org)