WHEN THE TRUMP administration announced last July it was loosening decades-old restrictions on military drone exports, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee came out swinging. Progressive Democrats pounced and introduced legislation to reverse the decision.
The new policy, they correctly warned, opened the door for sales to authoritarian countries like the United Arab Emirates that Democratic and Republican administrations alike had denied since the Reagan era.
“As we explore the repercussions of today’s announcement on our broader foreign policy goals and our national security interests,” Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., said of the Trump administration’s July 24 announcement, “this reckless decision once again makes it more likely that we will export some of our most deadly weaponry to human rights abusers across the world. This is yet another reckless move by an Administration fixated with eliminating the international cooperation that has made the United States and other countries safer for decades.” Read More