Munitions Industry
The 21st century expression of ancient tendencies is to apply advanced
technologies to the design and manufacture of weapons. Every country that can
afford high tech weapons makes a substantial investment in armaments. As new
weapons are manufactured in more affluent countries, older weapons are sold to
poorer countries so that the ability to destroy property and kill humans is well
distributed all over the planet. The AK-47 is a hand-held automatic rifle, an agent of death, that is
distributed worldwide. Kalashnikov designed the rifle when he was a sergeant in
the Russian army. AK 47s and variants are cheap to make, reliable to use and
readily available on gun black markets. Several countries manufacture and export
them. They are sold to governments, criminals, civilians, terrorist and are used
by child soldiers. In Africa, the cost of buying an Ak47 varies from $30 to $120
(US). Hodges described Kalashnikov societies where the proliferation of the
weapon “makes it impossible for civil society to assert itself and halt the
killing.”
When US President Eisenhower retired in 1961, he warned US citizens of the
military industrial complex in the US. He stated prophetically: “The conjunction
of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the
American experience. In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the
military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced
power exists and will persist.”
The USA continues to build new advanced weaponry: aircraft, aircraft
carriers, Nuclear submarines, missiles, drones, land and ocean based missile
launchers.
Bender reported that the United States supplied $8.1 billion worth of
weapons to developing countries in 2005, 45.8 percent of total arms sales; in
contrast, Russia sold 15 percent of total arms and Britain, 13 percent. The US
also signed $6.2 billion worth of new deals to sell attack helicopters,
missiles, and other armaments to the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, India,
Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. New contracts for future weapons
deliveries were worth $44 billion. In 2017 McIntyre reported:" The global
arms race is on again, based on a measure of arms trade over the past five
years, compared to any similarly measured period since the Cold War. The
information is based on data from the widely followed Stockholm International
Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report, which issued its report for the dates
from 2007 to 2011 and 2012 to 2016. Most of the world's arm sales come from the
same five nations, which have been the top vendors for many years. In the new
SIPRI report, these big exporters — the United States, Russia, China, France and
Germany — represented 74% of the "volume of exports. (Douglas A. McIntyre
Wall Street Journal. - February 20, 2017 Global arms trade hits highest level
since Cold War)
A report compiled by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service stated:
“"We are at a point in history where many of these sales are not essential for
the self-defense of these countries and the arms being sold continue to fuel
conflicts and tensions in unstable areas...Where before the principal motivation
for arms sales by foreign suppliers might have been to support a foreign policy
objective, today that motivation may be based on economic motives."
India and China, the two most populous nations on the planet are creating
large, powerful military organizations with nuclear weapons. China has advanced
missile and submarine technology that gives them the offensive capacities that
rival the worst that the US and Russia have to offer. The balance of power is
shifting to Asia. In 2018
Weapons systems are evolving into networked extensions of human brains.
Warriors imagine high technology coalitions such as NATO who will police the
planet, with smart weapons and aircraft that can be remotely controlled by
pilots sitting safely at workstations close to home. High performance jet
fighters are still highly regarded in the US, Russia and Europe and come with
price tags of 30 to 100 million USD each. Fighter pilots still talk about dog
fights but they are flying at supersonic speeds and shooting guided missiles
miles away from their adversaries. The good old days of acrobatic flying and
daring maneuvers is gone. Increasingly, weapons become robots with their own
electronic guidance and control systems.
Weapon lovers talk about the enemy with great enthusiasm. They want to use
freedom destroying weapons to defend freedom. Without an enemy, expensive
weapons look ridiculous. Hopeful idealists imagine a different nonviolent world with an external
nervous system that links minds in grooming and altruistic information sharing
that will render military activities obsolete.
A sober realist who studies weapons technology and the mind set of the
creators will have serious doubts about the prospects for peace in centuries to
come. For the foreseeable future, competition to establish military dominance
would seem inevitable. It is easy to argue that most humans are ready to fight
and support governments with stockpiles of weapons. The idea is not avoid war,
but to avoid losing a war. Eisenhower was right. The military industrial complex
is a powerful parasite that absorbs inordinate wealth, dedicated only to
destruction and death.
The cover of national security and military honor keeps most citizens
confused and docile. At home, military personnel wear attractive uniforms
adorned with badges, and medals. They have bands, marches, and perform
impressive funerals. Their cemeteries and national monuments to honor dead
soldiers are often visited by patriotic citizens.
Anyone who really wants peace will have to confront and constrain
governments that spend their money on weapons. They will have to reduce and
redefine the nature and conduct of military organizations. The power of the
military industrial complex must be reduced. The international sale of surplus
armaments must cease. Guns at home must be limited The problem, of
course, is that no country will agree to unilateral disarmament. In the USA, few
citizens will give up their own guns. They are ready to fight. Everyone has to
disarm at the same time to the same degree and so far, this is impossible.
