In 1989 the Berlin wall fell and the cold war officially ended. While most of the world was thrilled, arms dealers were less than excited. The end of the cold war arms race meant a serious decline in sales. But what to do?

The arms dealers needn’t have worried. The U.S. government always looks out for them. As this Foreign Policy in Focus article sums up nicely, the U.S. government from, Nixon to Clinton to Bush, aggressively pushes for arms sales around the world. Any cold war drop was quickly made up.

In yesterday’s post, I described the enormous arms sales by developed nations (especially the U.S.) to developing nations. The obvious question is, why? Why would a developing nation spend so much money on arms? Why would the people in those nations allow it?

In fact, why would any people allow so much of their money to be taken in taxes and paid directly to defense contractors who make obscene amounts of money?

Fear.

Arms dealers need to keep us all in a constant state of, if not war, at least fear. Both fear and war in the Middle East have been keeping arms dealers very busy. Take another look at that Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 2001-2008 (CATDN) report.

Top purchasers of U.S., Russian, French and British arms include the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco – whose arms transfer agreements in 2008 were worth $9.7 billion, $8.7 billion, and $5.4 billion respectively.

Is it any surprise that the United States, France, and the UK would stand united in their tough talk toward Iran? Each of them stands to gain by keeping that area of the world militarized. Note the following quote from the CATDN report.

The principal catalyst for major new weapons procurements in the Near East region in the last decade was the Persian Gulf crisis of August 1990-February 1991. This crisis, culminating in a U.S.-led war to expel Iraq from Kuwait, created new demands by key purchasers such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for a variety of advanced weapons systems. Subsequently, concerns over the growing strategic threat from Iran has become the principal driver of GCC states’ arms purchases. Because GCC states do not share a land border with Iran, their weapons purchases have focused primarily on air, naval, and missile defense systems. Egypt and Israel, meanwhile, have continued their military modernization programs, increasing their arms purchases from the United States.

(Interesting how this is just one year after the Berlin wall fell, no?)

As Scott Ritter explains in this Guardian piece, Iran is not in violation of any laws related to nuclear facilities. And Iran is not any closer to nuclear weapons capabilities. Iran has not been the aggressor in the area. “When is the last time that Iran has invaded any other country?” Glenn Greenwald asks in this must see appearance, “You would have to go back several centuries.”

Now some of you are going to want to talk about how crazy Iran’s leaders are, how they violate human rights, victimize homosexuals and oppress women. But if we care so much about human rights violations, why are we selling weapons to the United Arab Emeriates, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco?

Iran is easy pickings. While we are hiding under our beds, the arms dealers, military contractors, oil companies, and other industries that profit from our fear are contemplating how to spend their bonuses.