Of 18 major human rights treaties, the United States is party to only 5, as few as any nation on Earth. The U.S. government is a leading holdout on disarmament treaties. It disregards the rulings of the International Court of Justice. It has refused to join the International Criminal Court, and punished other nations for doing so -- and even sanctioned officers of the court to dissuade them from doing their jobs. It has brought pressure to bear on the Spanish and Belgian governments when their courts have sought to prosecute U.S. crimes. It has spied on and bribed other members of the United Nations to influence votes. It has interfered in elections and facilitated coups. It employs massive and unaccountable secret agencies. It engages in assassinations. It claims the right to blow up anyone, anywhere with missiles from robotic airplanes. It sabotages pipelines and other infrastructure, heedless of the law or the damage done. It opposes new treaties almost universally, including those proposed to ban the weaponization of space, cyber attacks, and nuclear weapons.
The Widespread Understanding of the ProblemMost countries polled in December 2013 by Gallup called the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world, and Pew found that viewpoint increased in 2017. In 2024, across the Arab world, the U.S. government is viewed as an enemy of peace and justice.
The Solution
It's time to begin a conversation about using Boycotts, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) to bring the U.S. government into a global community of law-abiding nations.
Boycotts and divestment campaigns should be directed against major U.S. weapons corporations -- and toward pressuring governments to cease doing business with U.S. weapons corporations.
Sanctions should be created through the United Nations to target top U.S. officials openly guilty of the worst crimes. (This is very different from sanctions illegally and immorally punishing entire populations, unilaterally created by a single government or a group of governments.)
These 15 largest U.S.-based weapons companies should be boycotted, divested from, blockaded, and protested, and their funding of research or scholarships or internships or advertising rejected, and no parts or services provided to them:
- Lockheed Martin Corp.
- Raytheon Technologies (Name now changed to RTX Corporation)
- Northrop Grumman Corp.
- Boeing
- General Dynamics Corp.
- L3Harris Technologies
- HII
- Leidos
- Amentum
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- CACI International
- Honeywell International
- Peraton
- General Electric
- KBR
Also worth including on that list is BAE Systems, which is based in the UK but is one of the U.S. military's largest suppliers, and the largest weapons company outside the United States.
Obviously, divesting from these companies includes divesting from funds that invest in these companies. More on divestment here.
Governments around the world should be pressured to reject U.S. bases (shut them, expel them, forbid them), U.S. weapons, and U.S. military funding, and to hold the U.S. government to the rule of law through:
- "Uniting for Peace" action in the General Assembly of the United Nations,
- Prosecution of individuals through the International Criminal Court and through universal jurisdiction,
- Prosecution of crimes through the International Court of Justice,
- A Truth and Reconciliation Commission on the crimes of the U.S. government.
More on opposing military bases here.
Endorse This Project Go here.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
