Not only does Dubya deliver his god's gift of freedom, but he also delivers his god's gifts of war, death, and destruction. The NY Times reports that America is selling arms to many undemocratic nations as well as those with "poor" human rights records.
More than half of the top 25 recipients in 2003, either through the commercial sales program or through foreign military sales, were countries that the State Department has defined as undemocratic.
They included Saudi Arabia (purchases of $1.1 billion); Egypt ($1 billion); Kuwait ($153 million); and the United Arab Emirates ($110 million).
In other cases, weapons were sold to countries having internal conflicts, including Angola, Chad and Ethiopia, or where the human rights record was "poor," according to the State Department; this category included Nigeria, Tunisia and Nepal.
If, as Bush theorizes, spreading democracy makes the United States safer, are we helping bolster the destructive powers of nations who scorn what we hold to be so precious? By this I mean democracy, not oil.
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