While much has been made of the Obama Administration’s attitude toward business, there is one industry which he seems extremely accommodating to, and is going to bat to grow. We are speaking, of course, of the arms export industry.
Already the world’s largest exporter of arms by no small measure, the President’s pledge to massively grow the industry will require, first and foremost, trimming the approval process, the full effort of which has yet to be realized.
But the president has scored his first victory on this front, getting Congress to slip language allowing him to trim the exportable weapons approval process into the Iran sanctions bill, of all places.
The effort will go far beyond this, if the administration has its way, with officials arguing that the current system of restrictions on the sale of weapons to foreign governments are obsolete, a throwback to the Cold War era.
Though President Obama appears to have the support of Foreign Affairs Committee chair Rep. Berman (D – CA) it seems there is some dispute over whether failure to grow of overseas weapons sales is, as National Security Adviser James Jones suggested, really a threat to national security. In a world with an endless supply of US-led wars, however, the number of prospective buyers seems to be secured.