FWIW the act has two parts; one is that the SOS must certify that countries currently receiving arms meet the criteria while a hard & fast break is imposed on some countries right away & makes it harder for them to be lifted.
I acknowledge that it's always a tricky issue and one where we'll have different views; the hope is that this bill starts this discussion (as this debate has taught me more about our foreign policy)
I will be hoping to get a vote rolling sometime this week
Should Russia and North Korea be added? Saudi Arabia? There is a number of countries with communist or authoritarian governments that are undemocratic. If we're going to be consistent in our support for democracy and human rights, this list will be a mile long.
And although I personally believe democracy to be the best form of government, the cultural and tribal differences in some countries render democracy unworkable. Democracy would not work, and has never been tried, in countries like China and Saudi Arabia. We need to be humble in recognizing that instituting democracy throughout the world simply isn't feasible, and not the only measure of human rights.
My assumption was that Russia would not be getting arms sales so wouldn;t need to be on the list and would fall off the criteria.
On the second point I'd say that I'm not someone who believes that we shouldn't engage with these countries; I just don't believe we should be selling them arms and more particuarly arms that are used to repress their own people; we often hid behind exporting policing training which is then used to crush dissent in these countries.
