Trump Just Made It Easier To Export Armed Drones By Breaking International Treaty

Trump Just Made It Easier To Export Armed Drones By Breaking International Treaty

"Donald Trump has decided to reclassify part of an international treaty from the 1980's that restricted the export and sale of unmanned aerial vehicles capable of firing weapons. This includes the drones that the United States has come to favor, and now we'll be able to sell these unaccountable weapons of death to countries that definitely do not need this technology. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening"
Subtitles:
We all know that the U S government loves
their drones. We love to send these unmanned

drones to other countries where we can kill
as many people as we want from the comfort

of our own offices. Right? You just sit there,
you control it from miles away. Sometimes

hundreds of miles away. It doesn't matter.
You don't have to put your life at risk. You

don't have to risk your soldiers, but you
still get to kill people. That is the beauty

of these drones for the U S military and the
federal government. And Trump loves these

drones so much that he is decided to actually
unilaterally alter a, a 1987 missile agreement

that the United States entered into with 35
countries so that we can finally export these

kick ass drones all over the planet. Isn't
that wonderful. Now here's the thing you actually,

can't just alter in international treaty.

That's something that actually every signatory
would, would have to agree to. So, so Trump

is effectively breaking the treaty cause he
doesn't have the authority to just unilaterally

change it. The treaty, by the way, is the
1987 missile technology control regime. 35

countries have signed onto, and it basically
what it says is you can't export or sell these

large missiles capable of delivering large
payloads, uh, for example, possibly a nuclear

warhead. Now, even though this was in 1987,
this also included unmanned aerial vehicles,

the UAVs before they were called drums, uh,
that's what they were. They weren't hugely

popular back then. The technology was still
very rudimentary, uh, but they existed and

it covered those. So Trump decides to change
it. Reclassify what the drones we use are

so that they're no longer a part of this treaty
and they can then be sold. Um, what he's doing.

Uh, here's what it says. The drones in the
category must have a maximum airspeed of less

than 800 kilometers per hour, uh, which will
allow sales of the Reaper and predator drones

used by the U S military as well as others
made by us defense manufacturers. And that

is exactly who is going to benefit from this.
Uh, the white house said, and this is their

official statement. Um, not only do these
outdated standards, give an unfair advantage

to countries outside of the MTCR and hurt
United States industry. They also hinder our

deterrence capability abroad by handicapping,
our partners and allies with subpar technology

Twice, twice, twice in their decision. They
mentioned industry industry that's because

that's what this is all about. This is not
going to benefit our allies. This is going

to hurt the United States, but it is going
to help the military industrial complex, the

weapons manufacturers. They are going to reap
in billions of dollars in sales because of

this decision. And of course, as is always
the case, some of the money they get from

those sales is going to be funneled to pay
for politicians who are going to make things

like this happen. That's how that works. That's
how that disgusting little site, the goal

perpetuates itself. And that is exactly why
Donald Trump did this. He's facing a tough

reelection. He needs all the money he can
get. And this is going to help put more dollars

in his pocket because it's going to help put
more dollars in the pocket of the U S defense

industry.

Oh, and at the same time, it's going to put
these horrific [inaudible] weapons in the

hands of people who hate the United States.
Well, and maybe they love the United States,

but they hate other countries. You know, like
Saudi Arabia, we've seen the abuse as they've

already carried out with us weapons, seeing
them so us weapons to the Taliban and we still

sell them more. I guarantee you, they're going
to be the first ones in line to get their

hands on these drones. Mark. My words, once
this is finalized, that will be one of the

first stories that gets reported massive.
U S drone sales to Saudi Arabia followed shortly

by stories about Saudi Arabia. You is using
us built drones to kill civilians and other

parts of the world that will happen if this
plan goes through.
 
That's how you build allies. We'll be sending in our military and civilian contractors to train and help mantain these things. Plus there will be billions of dollars in the equipment required to operate them. Its not like selling a rifle.

Besides, these things all (partially) operate off of satellite uplinks/downlinks, plus a few other other encrypted rf channels. If our folks are smart, they'll include a hidden backdoor into all that stuff so if Achmed gets a little out of line.... we hit the "kill-switch" and disable his billion dollar fleet. Easy as that.

Sell them f'rs... we can use the revenue.
 
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department has officially loosened restrictions on exporting military-grade unmanned aerial vehicles to foreign nations, a move long sought by the defense industry.

I'm wondering if this is as big of a deal as you're making it out to be.

We've been exporting arms to allied countries for a long time. For example, we've basically stocked Israel and Japan with our top of the line aircraft.

This article makes it seem like defense companies will be allowed to sell arms to the enemies of the country...this I doubt.
 
Can anyone here spell A-f-g-h-a-n-I-s-t-a-n?
Can anyone here spell "kill-switches"?
And don't think the Ruskies or Chinese won't do the same thing. That's why we should be the prime vendor.

Edit... does anyone even know if Afghanistan is a friend or foe?
 
Back
Top