lol!

The UK is the world's second biggest arms exporter, behind the United States, with a market share of about 20%. The US have a market share of over 40%.

The UK arms trade has been mired in controversy since the 1980s, when British firms joined the scramble to supply Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

In the early 1990s, Coventry-based engineering firm Matrix Churchill hit the headlines when it breached an arms export ban by providing Iraq with equipment used by the military to build a "supergun" capable of striking Israel.

Labour came to power in 1997 promising to "make Britain once again a force for good in the world".

Then Foreign Secretary Robin Cook announced new arms export guidelines banning the sale of weapons that could be used for internal repression, or to fuel regional instability.

But the policy fell at the first hurdle, when Mr Cook failed to prevent the supply of Scorpion tanks, water cannon and Hawk jets to Indonesia in 1997.

Mr Cook said he was acting on legal advice that contracts signed by the Conservatives could not be broken.

But despite assurances from Indonesia, the UK exports were used in a bloody campaign to crush separatists in the Aceh province.

Labour has also faced criticism for the sale of military equipment to trouble spots including Colombia, Sri Lanka, Algeria and Zimbabwe, when it intervened in a conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The industry's increasing attempts to target the Asian market - which recently saw it sign a £1bn deal to supply Hawk jets to India - has also led to accusations it is fuelling regional tensions.

Despotic Banana. I am not disputing that. I was disputing the argument that Britain and America armed Saddam. When in plain fact it was almost all done by France and Russia.

As regards arms sales, I would like to see Britain and the USA reduce their weapons sales dramatically. I would also like to see China and Russia stop selling landmines and AK47's and to anyone who wants them. These weapons have killed more people than anything else in the last 50 years.

The point I am making is: it is easy and popular to bash the USA. I would like people who do this without thinking, to take a moment and also criticise those other regimes that are more often than not worse.

Where I get annoyed, is when people like yourself just jump on the anti-american bandwagon, spouting rhetoric about stuff that no one was even asking. Blind to the fact that America is not worst or most eveil regime out in the world. it is almost as though you want it to be, just to fulfil your own needs.

At least I tried to answer a statement made by someone else.

nick i said we armed him and lots of others... which is true yes? we are a massive arms dealer, and i was also pointing out the hypocrisy of selling him arms (which we did) and then going to war against him having them, we led the war with america see?

Well, not really. What were classified as arms sales: were actually gas masks, nbc protective gear and the like, plus some uniforms. America exported similar stuff. The super-gun was stopped and never completed (thank-god). Though there were strong hints of government collusion in this particular illegal sale.

Regarding their arrogance. I cannot disagree.

However I am mindful of the history of Europe when countries and individuals criticise the USA. We here in Britain, conquered and subjugated a quarter of the world's population and land area for almost two-hundred years. The French were as brutal if not more. Russia and China were and are horrendous, and Germany can hardly be called peaceloving. I am not talking about old history, but stuff that is occurring in our, or our parents lifetimes.

As regards weapons sales. Which kills more people? AK47's and mines, or sales of tanks and aircraft. The USA and Britain are the biggest two arms dealers on the planet, by a margin. Yet what causes most damage around the world, judging by Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and the UN: is the completely indiscriminate arms dealing of former Soviet countries and China. That is why I get upset when people make a big deal out of Britain selling aircraft to Indonesia, wrong though it may be, when China is still selling landmines and machine guns to anyone with the cash. To me, those people should be spending most of their days, protesting outside the Chinese embassy.

And, unpalatable as it may seem, were it not for the US, we'd all be speaking German now.