Senators Obama and Lugar write in the Washington Post

First, there was the Nunn-Lugar bill to stop nuclear proliferation. Now, Senators Lugar and Obama announce a bill to stop the proliferation of conventional weapons by establishing "cooperative relationships with willing countries".

Hopefully, we will do our part as well limit the arms dealing that we do.

Junkyard Dogs of War

By Richard G. Lugar and Barack Obama

At a sprawling, run-down industrial complex in Donetsk, Ukraine, weeds grow along a rusty rail spur that winds among World War II-era warehouses and factories. Little security is evident, and the facility looks like a giant junkyard.

In a way, it is -- except the "junk" consists of thousands of tons of live military munitions. When we went there last summer, we saw mortar rounds, land mines and artillery shells of all sizes stacked in huge piles and strewn carelessly about.

Sold on the black market, these conventional weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists or militant extremists anywhere in the world. Donetsk is only one of several ill-secured stockpiles of conventional weapons in Ukraine, a major dumping ground for weapons, and there are perhaps scores more in dozens of countries around the world.

Washington Post