So, while some of us are expending so much energy in order to bring about as much as a butterfly's effect of a change for peace...
On Friday, US President Trump tore up the United Nations sponsored treaty signed by his predecessor Barack Obama to regulate the sale of conventional weapons. The Arms Trade Treaty was a landmark agreement that came into force on the 24 December, 2014. The treaty has been ratified by 96 of the 130 signatories and Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesperson, celebrated it as:
a landmark achievement in the efforts to ensure responsibility in international arms transfers.
Money before people
The aim of the treaty is to prevent arms from being sold to human rights abusers. It is a bit like not wanting to sell Viagra to serial rapists, or petrol to arsonists. The least a responsible government can do to protect the innocent, you would think. But no, not for Trump and the National Rifle Association (NRA). They don't want the $70 billion business to be regulated. Money comes before people.
At an NRA gathering in Indianapolis Trump boasted that he would never allow "foreign bureaucrats to trample on" the freedom of the Second Amendment. Of course, the treaty, which deals with the international arms trade, has little or nothing to do with the Second Amendment. But then again, President Trump has never been one to care about truth. The NRA, currently plagued with infighting, was delighted.
Blood on your hands?
Kites are made to fly and weapons are made to kill, maim and destroy. Dealing in them is bad enough, but deliberately selling them to those who you know will abuse them is equivalent to mass murder; genocide, even: who knows? I will never understand how these people manage to sleep at night. However, all those who knowingly continue to support them, are also guilty. So be careful whom you are giving your vote to. That sort of blood on your hands does not wash off easily,
UN-aligned for a safer world; join here!
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