In the case of Sierra Leone it was more of an infantry war without heavy weapon support. The few heavy weapon both sides had was second handed and run down.

Big guns is what win wars not small arms. If country X is buying big guns country Y is screw if it didn’t do the same.

Please rate this comment: 0  0

“That ten 155 Howitzer with a trained crew will lay waste to 100k AK equipped soldier in no time.”

The key word here is “trained crew”. Check out the Air Force of Cote d’Ivore. At several points in their current civil war, they have purchased Migs and Sukhoi aircraft, just to have each one of them un-flyable in less than a year due to lack of maintenance. Small arms can be surprisingly effective. Executive Outcomes was able to regain control of the majority of Sierra Leone with little more than 80 men with small arms and one helicopter.

Carl,
+1 about arming the victims. One of the primary reasons that Executive Outcomes was so effective is because they worked very effectively with the Kamajors, essentially local militia outfits that held ground after EO was able to retake it.

The grating thing about “the International” is that it is supposedly based on a true story, in this case BCCI. But, of course where they go wrong, as you point out, is the left-wing fantasy that the support that BCCI provided to arms smuggling was due to evil capitalists trying to make money off of fomenting wars. BCCI was in fact founded by a Pakistani to “fight the evil influence of the West,” and supported Islamic terrorist organizations, most predominantly, Abu Nidal. Something tells me that they left that out of the Hollywood rendition.

-Michael

Please rate this comment: 1  0

George Clooney et al should be lobbying the UN to allow the Viktor Bouts of the world to sell weapons to the opressed in Darfur etc rather than asking for interventions by troops from other countries. If the people who lived there had weapons they could defend themselves.

Only if an arms dealer knows that the buyer is going to use his weapons for evil is he to blame. Selling guns is in itself an entirely peaceful act.

I just saw “The International”, another movie partially about arms trade, and they of course had it all wrong too. Some rubbish conspiracy about how big banks control the world by selling weapons and thereby supposedly causing conflicts.

It had a cool shootout set in the Guggenheim museum in NY though. But the story was crap.

Please rate this comment: 0  0

So many people focus on small arms like AK, AR, etc for weapon smuggling. Small arms are just that small arms and don’t really impact the flow of battle and war like heavy weapons.

People get high blood pressure when they heard 100k of AK smuggle into country X but break no sweat for ten 155 Howitzer. That ten 155 Howitzer with a trained crew will lay waste to 100k AK equipped soldier in no time.

Those that have big guns are tempted to start wars against those that don’t because big guns win wars.

Please rate this comment: 0  0

It depends on what kind of war is being fought.

Please rate this comment: 0  0

I’m interested in what heavy weapons he exported and to what countries.

Remember folks small arms don’t win wars, big guns do like artillery.

Please rate this comment: 0  0