Despite a recession that knocked down global arms sales last year, the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new Congressional study.

Leaders of a wide variety of national organisations and Congress are putting pressure on U.S. President Barack Obama to reconsider his predecessor's policies of allowing the use, transfer and production of weapons that have been shown to indiscriminately maim and kill civilians.

Army and Marine Corps officials knew nearly a decade before the invasion of Iraq that its workhorse Humvee vehicle was a "deathtrap" even with armor added to protect it against roadside bombs, according to an inspector general's report.

President-elect Barack Obama, who deliberately distanced himself from lobbyists during his campaign and his transition, appointed a defense contractor's lobbyist Thursday to become his No. 2 official at the Defense Department.

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"U.S. arms and military training played a role in 20 of the world's 27 major wars in 2007," said the report, co-authored by New America's Hartung and Frida Berrigan.

A warmer planet could find itself more often at war. The Earth’s fast-changing climate has a range of serious thinkers — from military brass to geographers to diplomats — predicting a spate of armed conflicts driven by the weather.

"In our councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex..."

No one is minding the missile mart, and the world is on a spending spree....The arms race makes the world a more dangerous place. The next administration needs to cut them to a size that fits the actual dangers of the world.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States continued spending more on the military than the rest of the world combined. Andrew Bacevich, author of "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism", questions whether the runaway spending actually makes America safer, and why candidates from both the Democratic and Republican parties are swearing allegiance to the global "war on terror".