Spoils of War: The Human Cost of America's Arms Trade

One of the most important stories that's rarely in the newspapers is the foreign sales activities of American defense contractors. But an important issue it is, as illustrated by this book. Spoils of War focuses on the overseas marketing of helicopters to Turkey, which results in nice profits for Sikorsky, but has awful consequences for the Kurdish refugees they're used against. John Tirman, active in left-wing think-tank and publishing circles, makes the case that the main result of U.S. arms makers' market-making for weapons that the Pentagon doesn't want is a Third World human rights fiasco--one that, despite the company line, doesn't really help state and local economies.