tmo

WoMD

I had a enjoyable and interesting conversation with Molly and Steph last night. In reviewing the state of world affairs and our upcoming war, Molly brought up a good question: "What are weapons of mass destruction?"

Curious, I did a little research.

First off, in thinking about our American fascination with war and violence, go see Michael Moore's Bowling for Coumbine (still playing at many fine theaters).

The movie's site also has a good list of links around the new war movement.

On the topic of Weapons of Mass Destruction there is a convenient table listing the countries that posses such weapons.

Here is a decent description of what Weapons of Mass Destruction are in the case of Iraq.

Here is the CIA report on same.

And the other side of the fence, an Interview With Dr. Helen Caldicott, Founder of Physicians For Social Responsibility. This ties in nicely with one of the key points of Bowling for Columbine--Who makes money off of war?

TP.c: In addition to companies like Lockheed-Martin, there are many other well-known companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, TRW… What is this class of American companies? What are these industries?

Caldicott: Well, they’re industries making weapons to kill people. I’ve
got a friend who’s an admiral and he said, "Helen, our mission is to
destroy property and kill people." These weapons are to kill people and
destroy property. It’s legalized murder. And what they’re doing also is
they’re stealing the Americans' tax dollars. They’re the new robber
barons. They’re spending nearly half-a-trillion dollars a year on
weapons. If you spent $1,000 a minute since Jesus was born, you would
have just got to a trillion dollars. Half-a-trillion dollars on death --
when America is one of the only countries in the West that has no free
medical care system?

Posted by at January 28, 2003 04:33 PM