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Monday, June 20, 2005
What Is Really Obscene
Recently remarks by Sen. Durbin about torture at Guantanamo and by Rep. Conyers referring to the Downing Street Memos have both been called obscene. These subjects are minor in comparison to what is really obscene.
It is really obscene when the worldwide expenditures for armaments in 2004 exceeded $1 trillion. The United States spent almost half of that amount, or almost 3% of global GDP. This does not include over $200 billion the US spent to fight terrorism.
In Western Europe and South America military expenditures fell. They increased in South Asia, Northern Africa and North America.
In the pursuit of DWD's (Dream Weapons of Destruction) USA has a current commitment of over $1.5 trillion. The Pentagon opposes many of these programs. They are created or kept in place by the politicians and civilians in the DOD.
These are obscene in any realistic aspect of life. The Merchants of Death have gained control of the world. The largest supplier is the USA. We sell more destroying, killing material than the rest of the world combined. Our government supports this. It crosses the aisles to all political parties. We elected them and keep them in office.
What Eisenhower warned about the rising power of the Military Industrial Establishment has become far greater than he ever envisioned. Constant warnings from concerned people all over the world have come to naught. When retiring as Chancellor of the Lincoln Academy, I sounded this tocsin. Afterwards Gen. Westmoreland was decorated.
What is obscene is when you consider the good such amounts could do for worldwide poverty, free trade, health, shelter, education, ecological solutions, population problems, infra structures-just to mention a few concerns. Not even thinking about the rest of the world we are constantly facing what a minority of politicians and lobbyists feel is needed in America. Surely there are better ways to spend out treasure.
I am not even mentioning the countless thousands killed or seriously wounded as a result of these expenditures.
Surely no God could be obscene enough to create this.
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