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ARMAGEDDON IN
THE
MAKING
MIDEAST
ARMSRACE
"OUTOF CONTROr'
The escalating arms buildup in the explosive Middle East
bodes
i/1
for that region 's future - and poses sorne knotty
problems for Washington policy planners.
M
assive sales of sophistica ted
weapon ry to th e Mid d le
Eas t - scene o f four wars
si nce Wo rld War
ll -
has trans–
formed that volatile area into " the
mos t militarized region in the
world," acco rding to the annua l re–
por! of the Stockholm Interna tiona l
Peace Research Institute (SI PRl ).
"More than half of the total a rms
supplied in 1975 went to the Middle
East," according to S IPRl's analys is.
Middle East arms expenditures are
now running at a staggering 16% of
the region's combined gross na–
tional product - more than triple
the percentage average for ATO
nations in Europc.
In their scramble fo r new weap–
ons, some M iddle Eastern na tions
have ended up with more advanccd
arsenals than the countries sup–
plying them! Iran, for cxample, wi ll
soon have, in the words of London's
Financia/ Times,
"the most ad–
vanced tank army in the world," as
a result of' a multi-million doll ar
arms dea l with Britain.
Without question, thc continui ng
Mideast arms buildup is far and
away outdistancing the search for
pcace. The potential destructivencss
of a future war is being raised to
unparalleled new he ights .
Vying for lnfluence
The Uni ted States. Soviet Union.
and other major arms suppliers
4
by
Keith
W.
Stump
(principally France and Britain)
have dramatically steppcd up a rms
sa les to the Middl e East a nd other
a reas of the T hi rd World in recent
years. SIPRI notes that the va!ue of
weapons going to the Third World
increased by 20% in 1975. on top of
a walioping 40% i.ncrease the pre–
vious year.
One reason fo r th e stepped-up
a nn s peddling is the con tinuing riv–
a lry between the United States -
the world's biggest arms merchant
- and second-ranking Soviet Union
for increased influence in strategic
world arenas. In addition. lucra tive
arms sale abroad serve to bolster
trade balances and create jobs at
home for t he me rchant na ti ons.
Accord in g to the n onpartisan
Arms Control Association in Wash–
ington, America's mos t sophis–
ti cated non-nuclear weapons -
including F - 14 fig h ters. laser-guided
"sma rt bombs," Lance missi les,
"TOW" an tit ank mi ss iles. and
Spruance-class des troye rs -are now
being sold overseas.
The Pentagon's principal Middle
Eastern clients are l ran and Saudi
Arab ia - both of whom are buy ing
mu ltip le billions of dolla rs worth of
U.S. arms - a nd long-time cus–
tomer Israel. to whom arms deliv–
erics during th e current fisca l year
a lone will tota l sorne $ 1.5 bil li on.
For the fir t time in 20 years. the
U.S. has also sta rted to supply
Egypt, which seve red relations with
the Soviet Union earlier this yea r.
The recent sale of six C-1 30 Hercu–
les transport planes to Cairo is
widely viewed as only the beginning
of U.S. arms sales to that nation.
Washington is also the major sup–
plier of arms to Jordan. which re–
cent ly decided to purchase a $540-
million American a ir defensc system
(with Saudi Arabia footing the bill).
Though spurned by Egypt, the
Soviet Union is far from out of the
Middle Eas t a rms p ict ure. Th e
Kremlin is supplyi ng large quan–
tities of modern weapons to Syria,
Libya, and l raq - including ad–
vanced MlG-23 fighters, tanks,
bom bers. combat hel icopters. and
artillery. Many of these weapons
have a lready found their way into
the Lebanese civi l war.
France and Britain. the world's
third- and fourth-ranked arms sup–
pliers, have relaxed their forme r re–
strictions on arms sales abroad, and
are now also selli ng aggressively
throughout the Middle East.
"The arms buildup
in
the Middle
East shows every sign of bei ng out
of cont rol," summarizes S IPRI.
"The complexity of the present situ–
ation .. . has reduced the feasibil ity
of maintaining some form of bal–
ance virtually to zero un less, of
course. the arms-supp lying coun–
tries a ll agree lo stop or limit their
supplies."
Fears are also rampant that for a
number of M iddle East nations. the
chilling step to nuclear weapons
may a lso be close at hand.
Deepening U.S. Commitment–
Sorne Questions
For U.S . pol icy planners, the
stepped-up arms flow to the Middle
East is beginning to raise some seri–
ous and heretofore unforeseen ques–
tions .
A maj o r justificat ion for increased
U.S. sales has been the idea that if
Washington could become the ma–
jor arms supplier to the Mideast -
sell ing weapons to nations on both
sides of potent ial conflicts - the
U.S. would automaticaliy acquire
powerful dip loma tic leverage to pre–
vent outbreaks of hostili ty.
But a report issued earlier th is
yea r by the Senate Foreign Rela–
tions Committee has pointed up
The
PLAIN TRUTH October 1976