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The U.S. has been the world's top arms dealer for years. In 1995, the Pentagon sold $9.03 billion worth, according to the latest figures, announced by Rep. Lee Hamilton (D., Ind.). Our biggest clients were Egypt (with $1.08 billion in purchases last year), the Netherlands ($948 million), France ($768 million), Japan ($715 million), Israel ($661 million) and Turkey ($599 million). Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Greece, among others, received U.S. taxpayer-financed assistance to buy our arms.
Many countries get free U.S. arms. That's because it's often cheaper (in the short run) to give obsolete weapons away than to destroy them, explains Paul Pineo of the Arms Sale Monitoring Project of the Federation of American Scientists Fund. Last October, for instance, we gave Bahrain two anti-aircraft missile launchers, 60 missiles and 10 attack helicopters.
The Pentagon also uses weapons as rewards for "good behavior." Since the 1979 Camp David accords, Israel has received $1.8 billion in military assistance each year, and Egypt $1.3 billion. The Clinton Administration plans to give F-16 aircraft to Jordan for making peace with Israel.