Faced with Mounting Criticism, Biden Suspends Arms Sales
CODEPINK
(January 27, 2021) — We’re winning The Biden Administration just paused a $23 billion transfer of F-35s fighter jets to the United Arab EmiratesAND a massive weapons sale — $519 million from Raytheon alone — to Saudi Arabiaand other Gulf states.
Let’s make this success permanent!
At a Raytheon quarterly earnings call earlier this week, CEO Greg Hayes tried to reassure stockholders worried about Biden’s hold on the $519 million sale. His grotesque words encapsulate the attitude that war profiteers have towards the people that they harm: “Look… peace is not going to break out in the Middle East anytime soon. I think it remains an area where we’ll continue to see solid growth.”
Not to be outdone, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet stated: “There’s no better way to get a tighter bond with an ally than sell them jet fighter aircraft.”
These quotes are disgusting and they reveal that these ultra-powerful CEOs believe that nothing is fundamentally going to change for them in the long run. They are confident that the pauses in weapons sales are only temporary and they will continue to see their profits soar during the Biden administration.
With one short comment, they exposed how the war economy actuallyworks: weapons companies get rich and make wealthy allies regardless of the number of human lives lost. Let’s show them they are very, very wrong.
It’s companies like Raytheon that are preventing peace in Yemen and now is the time to make a permanent stand against war for profit! Add your name to our petition to Biden and Blinken thanking them for pausing the sales and asking them to permanently block arms deals to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Yemen can’t wait!
As we celebrate today, we send our wishes to Raytheon and Lockheed Martin: may they have a year full of profit losses that make the world a safer, more peaceful place. If we make our voices heard, Biden will end these arms sales entirely, and hopefully, we will make some war profiteers very, very sad!
Add your name to demand that President Biden and Secretary Blinken permanently suspend weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and UAE, including the sale of Lockheed Martin F-35 jets to the UAE.
THE LETTER
Dear President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken,
We were excited to learn on January 27th, 2021 that you would be putting a hold on foreign arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
We are now demanding that you make the suspension of arms transfers to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates permanent.
The CEO of Raytheon Technologies, Greg Haynes, has already planned for a certain arms sale to Saudi Arabia to not go through. We are asking you to make that expectation reality by permanently suspending these massive sales to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government has shown, time and time again, a lack of respect for the human rights and self-determination of the Yemeni people, and the United Arab Emirates has been Saudi Arabia’s loyal ally throughout this war. Since March of 2015, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, with help from the UAE, has been bombing and blockading Yemen. This has created what the UN calls the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
Nearly 80% of Yemenis rely on humanitarian aid. But instead of sending aid to Yemenis, American companies are profiting by sending the weapons that kill them.
In one instance, a Lockheed Martin bomb sold to Saudi Arabia by the United States was dropped on a school bus in Yemen two years ago, killing dozens of children on their way to a field trip.
From this event, we know what Lockheed Martin’s weapons are used for: to injure and kill innocent children. One of the recent suspensions was of a transfer of $23 billion in Lockheed Martin-made F-35 jets. This sale must not go through. I am tired of Saudi-led war being waged in my name with weapons that say “Made in the USA.”
We cannot allow American weapons companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to continue to profit by arming the Saudi regime and the UAE.
Sincerely . . .
Toward peace,
Ariel, Carley, Danaka, Angela, Ann, Cody, Ciara, Emily, Farida, Grace, Jodie, Kelly, Kelsey, Leila, Leonardo, Marcy, Maxine, Mary, Medea, Michelle, Nancy, Paki, Sana, and Teri
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