The M.I.C. Rumbles On

With another new week comes another new round of notifications to Congress from the DSCA about new arms sales to various countries, mostly friendly, but others perhaps less so. Moral questions abound surrounding the sales of military weapons to various regimes throughout the world, not the least of which being whether a country can afford the expenditure, but perhaps more importantly, whether the weapons will be used to crush opposition, as may be the case in Kenya. It might also be the case that the 33 T-72's were bound for South Sudan, for the purpose of re-newing the civil war. Interfering with the transfer of arms, of course, is a dangerous game, and will probably not end well.

In Taiwan, the lack of arms sales are much more of a controversy. The Taiwanese government is being vexed by inter-department review in the Bush Administration of its desired arms package. Currently, the brouhaha is boiling down to a game of fingerpointing between the GMT and the former ruling party the DPP. Either way, this type of arms sales, including heavy duty equipment such as attack helicopters and surface to air missiles would certainly force the People's Republic of China to take notice and be concerned.