WAR & PIECE - OF THE PIE

6-20-10

Reading the daily death tolls around the world, especially the Muslim world, is shocking me into deep depression, primarily because I feel so helpless in the face of these tragedies. No day passes without the loss of life of ordinary people. Somehow, the death of soldiers, terrorists, Jihadists, so-called “Martyrs,” and “activists” sent to die, seems the fulfillment of their roles on earth, and less shocking to my system. The main exceptions to this list of kill and be killed human beings are the child soldiers sent to kill and be killed by cynical or crazy leaders of warring and war-loving entities.

In almost every nation in the world, death by gunfire plays its prominent role in news media reporting on numbers, combating elements, places, methodologies, reasons and rationales, for the killings, and only rarely, on the survivors of attacks or relatives of the dead for “human interest” stories. This Darwinian idea of survival of the fittest transmuted to death by gunfire of the weaker classification of humans, the “Victims,” and seems almost scientifically acceptable as a means of keeping the world’s overpopulation from overconsumption of the earth’s available food, water, and energy supplies.

The variegated warring factions around the globe all have a partner in their search for wealth and power through force of arms; the manufacturers of the tools of war. They get their cut from every action. They happily supply killers with the means to kill. And when business is slow, the salesmen turn out, along with all their competitors, to promote war. These “agents provocateurs” are often members of the indigenous populations that are or become the buyers and users of this huge assortment of materiel. And they are also members of the families and clans and ethnic groupings of the dead.

The United States is the largest manufacturer and supplier of weaponry in the world. And the country’s budget is heavily skewed in favor of the manufacturers of that weaponry and munitions - from aircraft to ships to tanks and cannons down the single infantry helmet, rifle, and hand grenade. To justify and support this bloody industry, the armed forces of the United States is the major single purchaser of killing machines and equipment.

Will there always be war? Of course! Why? There’s lots of money to be made from war.