Weapons Industry: Source of Terrorism

At this stage in history, the weapons industry has emerged as the worst source of terrorism that ever existed in the past six thousand years of recorded history. The lethal weapons it has developed over the past fifty years alone have killed more people than were massacred in total over the past 2,500 years, back to the time of the Persian, Greek, and Roman empires. What is amazing is not the fact that such an industry has become the greatest terrorist organization in the world, but that it successfully hypnotizes intelligent people from every walk of life and profession into believing that its product contributes to the protection and security of our respective nations.

Warranty of Death

Such a lethal industry constitutes a warranty of death. Tens of millions of people every year incur cancer because of toxic waste it produces, which poisons our air, our water, and the land where we grow our food. As though this isn’t enough, several groups at the grassroots level work constantly like devils to create regional conflicts in order to justify the continued manufacture and sales of weapons of destruction. Their main tactic is creating fear, which has led many people to panic and which has haunted most government officials of the world’s leading nations. The weapons industry is determined to survive in its business until the end of time. The only way to assure its survival is the continued creation of local, regional, and global conflicts.

What is the difference between the massacre of 5,000 innocent civilians by a lawless group of virtually unknown origin and the death of 5,000 innocent civilians massacred by a legally-existing agency known as the military? As far as the lives of these innocent people are concerned, it does not make any difference at all. However, as far as our government officials are concerned, there is a great difference. In fact, U.S. government officials referred to the innocent civilians killed in New York and Washington, D.C., as “victims,” while they view the innocent civilians killed by American weapons in Afghanistan and Iraq merely as “collateral damage!”

In other words, when the killing of the innocent is the responsibility of an unauthorized group, then we attribute that to an act of terrorism. On the other hand, when the killing of the innocent is the responsibility of an authorized group such as the military, then we call that an act of duty and patriotism! The fact remains that when politicians fail to get what they want through political means, they resort to the military, which is given the green light to perform any act of savagery and terrorism in the most brutal way one can possibly imagine.

What is amazing is the fact that highly-respected and intelligent professionals remain silent in countries where this lethal and satanic industry exists. They hardly ever even dream of raising their voices to defend the helpless and the poor whose lives are being truncated mercilessly by lethal products of the weapons industry. Why are the medical doctors not talking loudly and boldly about the tremendous hazards the weapons industry is causing to the health of countless millions of people?

Abdication of Responsibility

Why are the lawyers not proposing to the courts the condemnation of such weapons of destruction and having those responsible for the manufacture and sales of such weapons declared criminals for their outrageous crimes against humanity? Why are the church and religious leaders not condemning as immoral and sinful the manufacture and sales of military weapons? Why are our teachers at all levels of instruction not bringing to the attention of their students the weapons industry as the greatest source of terrorism in our earthly society? Why is it that the parents of our nation’s children do not discuss ways to solve this problem for good?

Why is it that our businessmen, other than those involved in weapons, do not get together and pool funds to educate people from every walk of life and profession about the dangers the weapons industry is imposing on them? These questions need a quick answer followed immediately by positive and constructive actions. The philosophy of the weapons industrial complex has hypnotized intelligent people from every walk of life and profession. Most of these people carry advanced degrees in almost every branch of knowledge. We are all familiar with the philosophy which most of us, quite unfortunately, hold as the absolute truth:

We need a strong military that is equipped with the most sophisticated weapons available. We need to replace old weapons with new ones. We need to equip our allies with such weapons as well so that they could defend themselves in case they are attacked.

Of course, such statements are a blatant lie. In the first place, the weapons industrial complex, as pointed out by the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C., does not exist for the defense of any nation. It exists merely for profit made through the sales of weapons. Salesmen will say anything imaginable, regardless of the truth, to sell their product. After all, that is the only way to make money, which they view as the highest goal of their lives. If we were watching a stage-show in a large auditorium of 5,000 people, which of the following alternatives would make us feel safer:

If each one of us is carrying a loaded gun for “self-protection,” or if no one at all is carrying a loaded gun?

The answer is clear and we do not need to elaborate.

If we study the tactics of the weapons industrial complex since the end of World War II in 1945, we will discover something curious which happens regularly and virtually without exception. This demonic industry has always had agents who go from one global area to another for purpose of creating civil strife within the same nation and/or with neighboring countries. The goal is always the same: to instill fear in each faction or group, and then to offer each one of these factions or groups all the weapons needed to “defend themselves” from a possible attack by the enemy.

Making Money as Main Objective

What outrageous lies!. The weapons industry sells weapons to anyone who gives the right price, friends and enemies alike. Such an industry, as stated earlier, does not care about the safety and sacredness of human life. Yet, the people of the nations where weapons are manufactured and sold (above all the United States) cannot see how they themselves are victims of brainwashing and indoctrination that is sponsored, very often, by the government itself. We need to raise a serious question:

How is it that the nations of the world, which manufacture and sell weapons, claim that the military is the only effective means available to solve all the problems of the world?

As we know from history, the military may be described as a brutal organization licensed by legitimate governments to massacre people indiscriminately without any investigation or trial. The policy of the military is not to reach solutions of mutual interest through conversation or dialogue. Its policy is violence, which explains why all soldiers are equipped with weapons of destruction instead of books of learning, food to feed the hungry , and medicine to cure the sick. This is the real picture of the military even though the government tries to hide this reality by presenting the military to the general public performing marches with flags and a band.

We are all familiar nowadays with the way the United States reacted to the acts of terrorism in New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001. It did not consult any of its thousands of civic, educational, and religious organizations. It responded by committing similar or even worse acts of terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq under the guise of getting one man known as Osama bin Laden, who was presumed to be directing these acts of terror. Thousands of innocent people died in New York and in Washington, D.C., and thousands of innocent people died in Afghanistan and Iraq as well. This was the “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” philosophy we find in the Old Testament. Ironically, the USA is a predominantly Christian nation whose Master Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, viewed this philosophy as vicious and evil. 

After the United States bombarded Afghanistan and Iraq and destroyed virtually their entire infrastructure, , it has set as a priority the creation of an Afghan army that will include 60,000 soldiers, 8,000 airmen, and 70,000 personnel in para-military roles instead of deciding with most of its self-proclaimed allies to rebuild a demilitarized nation. The present government in Afghanistan has already earmarked $235 million dollars for military spending in 2002 alone.

Groundwork of Future Military Dictatorship

Thus, the United States is setting the groundwork for a future Mobutu of the former Zaire, a future Pinochet of Chile, a future Suharto of Indonesia, a future Abacha of Nigeria, a future Mao of China, a future Stalin of Russia, a future Hitler of Germany. The question that needs to be raised here is this:

Why does the USA contribute systematically toward the creation of dictatorial regimes that prove afterwards to be so brutal and merciless?

To turn insult into injury, nine other nations promised to provide arms and military training to Afghanistan, this war-ravaged country of central Asia. These other nine nations are Britain, Germany, Italy, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Iran, China, and Turkey. The whole world needs to write to the embassies of these nations, especially to that of the United States, and demand a reversal of this militaristic policy. What the Afghani people need is not a strong military that will exploit them in due time, but the rebuilding of the infrastructure of the nation. The people need new schools and hospitals equipped with the best of modern technology. They need houses for the homeless as well as food and medicine. They need freedom of worship and the ability to feel safe at home without having to bother about future military coups.

In addition to the nine countries mentioned above and the United States, Japan and Saudi Arabia promised to give financial assistance as well in order to help “build the nation,” which simply means to help build “a strong military power.” We are all familiar with the concept, History repeats itself, as former British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill often stated. If that is the case, this is a vivid example of how the weapons industrial complex uses the U.S. government to plan present and future wars on a constant basis merely to keep its lethal product profitable. This explains why the only thing that really matters to the United States and its self-proclaimed allies is building a strong Afghani military power in order to guarantee the continued destabilization of the region in the future. In view of what has been stated, we may now fully realize and comprehend why the weapons industry may be viewed as the greatest source of terrorism in the world today.

Charles Mercieca, PhD, is Executive Vice President of the International Association of Educators for World Peace NGO, which is working together with the United Nations (ECOSOC) UNDPI, UNICEF, UNCED & UNESCO. He edits the United Nations News and is professor emeritus of History and Philosophy at the Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, AL.