Political Quotes

“as a cosponsor of the Congressional Review of Arms Transfers Eligibility Act I support the amendment of the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Hatfield, and the Senator from North Dakota, Senator Dorgan. The world is awash in weapons, and there is not a political leader from any of the world's major arms sellers who has not made speeches about the evils of the arms trade. Unfortunately, their rhetoric is not matched by action. In the United States, the defense industry, backed by the Pentagon, is using every trick in the trade to expand arms exports. The competition is fierce. Our allies, the Russians, the Chinese, and many others, are doing the same thing. One would think that our experience in the Persian Gulf, where our troops came under fire by Iraqi soldiers armed with weapons we gave to Iraq during its war with Iran, or in Somalia where our troops were killed by United States-made weapons, would give us pause. The weapons we sell have repeatedly fallen into the wrong hands. If they have not been used against us, they have often been used to commit abuses against innocent people elsewhere. In Afghanistan today, United States and Soviet weapons are being used to destroy what little is left of that country. Liberia is suffering the same fate. Turkey has used our weapons against Kurdish civilians. Indonesia, which faces no external threat, uses our weapons to crush internal dissent.”