6. U.S Foreign Arms Sales

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html?_r=1&hp

           Thom Shanker, the author of the article "U.S Foreign Arms Sales Reach $66.3 Billion in 2011," predominantly uses statistical facts all throughout his article. The title itself is a statistical fact and there are even more used by Shanker: U.S weapon sales tripled in 2011, the U.S totals 78% of global arms market which values at $85.3 billion, and Russia come second in the list with $4.8 billion. In 2010, U.S arms sales totaled $21.4 billion. Shanker proposes a rather interesting reason for such an increase in the global arms market: increasing tensions in countries like Iran and Persian Gulf nations ultimately forced Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Oman to buy weapons from the U.S.
          Thom Shanker uses a lot of statistical facts and names of institutions, countries, and weaponry to help persuade the reader and at the same time inform the reader about the reasons to why global arms sales have dramatically increased last year. The author uses a lot of monetary and currency mentioning and also presents a list of weaponry names that Saudi Arabia has purchased from the U.S such as missiles and aircrafts. Shanker also gives other reference statistical facts which help progress the author's purpose: the United States has tripled its weaponry sales over the last year compared to 2010 and compared to all other nation such as Russia, the United States is leading global arms market and most of the valued total sales of weapons have come from the U.S. The author tries to convince the reader that the U.S has a big role in the global arms sales.