I saw the movie as well, I didn't get the same message as the op ed couple did, nor did I get that Americans are stockpiling the worldwith arms, (I'm just using the way he was exporting the Russian weapons all over after the fall of the Soviet Union). The message was pretty simple...war is lucrative, and international. If you've got a gun to sell someone will buy it. I have nothing against guns, have some myself. But, on the other side of that same coin, we are being shot at by weapons we sold Iraq and by weapons we sold Afghanistan, let's not forget the Kalishnikovs the russians dumped on the market, in fact China is buying up a whole mess of Russias surplus including some of the larger things like navy ships, missiles, etc. We're in a perpetual war, always have been since Cane and Abel, war is happening somewhere all the time. I think the movie was little more directed at war profiteering, as what the main character did was illegal, and at the same time the major arms manufacturers were ticked at how he was taking their business. Not a great movie, but what Nocholas Cage movie is? (besides raising arizona of course).