Viewpoint: Health professionals and the arms trade.

Abstract

Back in October I joined a group of health professionals in London to add our voice to the opposition to Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), one of the world’s largest showcases of military equipment hosted bi-annually by Britain. Recently, another awful illustration of how innocent people suffer in a proxy conflict has developed. Many of the weapons being used by Turkey on the Syrian border have been supplied by the UK. In other words, we, as British taxpayers, are implicated in the horrific ordeal being endured by the victims of this conflict. As climate change produces yet more drastic effects with desertification, flooding, and other major climatic changes leading to mass migration and increasing risks of conflict, the arms manufacturers see, not suffering, but profit making …