Speak to us, Mr Eisenhower
I was hiking around Bryce Canyon sweating my way along the path back up to the rim when I saw that the two gentlemen I was about to pass were both wearing camouflage hats. I naturally had to start a conversation with them:
Sporadic Nomadic: "Excuse me gentlemen, are you in the army?"
Man1: "Nope, not me. I wasn't but he was (pointing to his friend)."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Oh I see. Were you deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan?"
Man2: "Yeah not in the army. That was long ago, but on assignment."
Sporadic Nomadic: "That's interesting, what type of assignment?"
Man2: "I work with Boeing and was doing a maintenance training for the F-18 aircraft. Where are you from?"
Sporadic Nomadic: "Canada."
Boeing Man: "Oh Canada. You guys are always the first ones in."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Ummm..what do you mean by that?!"
Boeing Man: "Yeah, you were the first into Afghanistan. Also world war 2."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Are you serious? That's an interesting point of view.
I decided to push the subject of war and see where it would lead.
Sporadic Nomadic: "So let me ask you: What are your impressions of Iran - are they a threat to the US?"
Boeing Man: "For sure. We don't want them sending terrorists our way."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Really?"
Boeing Man: "Yeah, those jihadists are a crazy bunch. We need a government in power who will keep the American people safe."
Sporadic Nomadic: "How do we get to safety if we push for more war?"
Boeing Man: "We need the military to protect the US."
At this point I asked the man what his background was and he informed me he was an electrical engineer.
Sporadic Nomadic: "Ok, so don't you think that if there was no war there could be so much more good done in the world. So much good with all that creativity and innovation. Guys like yourself - working on peace and good for humanity."
Boeing Man: "Think about what that would do to our economies. For every person employed by the military or the contractors there are 9 other people employed. Canada would suffer just as much."
At this point we chatted about Canada's role in world military exporting. He expounded on the guilt of Canada's role in the distribution of arms. In the past I looked into this issue and was quite appalled that Canadian companies were producing parts that were then assembled into landmines in other countries. All this despite the Ban on landmines being signed in Ottawa.
[This reminds me of Asbestos, Quebec. It's a city in Quebec that exports asbestos to India despite it being banned by the Canadian government for use in Canadian homes. To read more visit this story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/06/10/f-asbestos-safety.html]
There were parts of the conversation I did not record, but I got the sense that war is a real part of what is normal for this gentleman and perhaps the culture at large. I recall being at a washroom in the Baltimore Airport some years back and hearing the following come on the PA: "This is a code orange. Threat level is code orange." It put me on edge, but I can only imagine what it would be like to have these messages communicated consistently for a decade. What is the goal of this "war on terror" and when will it end? There seems to be no end in sight, rather a greater pushing towards further militarization.
I leave you with some statistics. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/), in 2011 the US spent 4.7% of it's GDP on military expenditures (that is $2,000 per US citizen). This is a total of $711 billion, which is a 59% increase over 2002 figures. The US is not alone in this frightening trend. Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia have realized sizable increases in their military expenditures. Overall, the world has increased military expenditures 42% over the past decade.
What happened in the last round of an arms build-up in the world (i.e the cold war)? We have observed a proliferation of small arms in very unstable countries in the majority world.
Let's talk about these issues and be aware of what is going on. The truth is out there somewhere. Let's work together to find it and all along the journey, above all, to love.
"America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect." Dwight D. Eisenhower 1961
Sporadic Nomadic: "Excuse me gentlemen, are you in the army?"
Man1: "Nope, not me. I wasn't but he was (pointing to his friend)."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Oh I see. Were you deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan?"
Man2: "Yeah not in the army. That was long ago, but on assignment."
Sporadic Nomadic: "That's interesting, what type of assignment?"
Man2: "I work with Boeing and was doing a maintenance training for the F-18 aircraft. Where are you from?"
Sporadic Nomadic: "Canada."
Boeing Man: "Oh Canada. You guys are always the first ones in."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Ummm..what do you mean by that?!"
Boeing Man: "Yeah, you were the first into Afghanistan. Also world war 2."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Are you serious? That's an interesting point of view.
I decided to push the subject of war and see where it would lead.
Sporadic Nomadic: "So let me ask you: What are your impressions of Iran - are they a threat to the US?"
Boeing Man: "For sure. We don't want them sending terrorists our way."
Sporadic Nomadic: "Really?"
Boeing Man: "Yeah, those jihadists are a crazy bunch. We need a government in power who will keep the American people safe."
Sporadic Nomadic: "How do we get to safety if we push for more war?"
Boeing Man: "We need the military to protect the US."
At this point I asked the man what his background was and he informed me he was an electrical engineer.
Sporadic Nomadic: "Ok, so don't you think that if there was no war there could be so much more good done in the world. So much good with all that creativity and innovation. Guys like yourself - working on peace and good for humanity."
Boeing Man: "Think about what that would do to our economies. For every person employed by the military or the contractors there are 9 other people employed. Canada would suffer just as much."
At this point we chatted about Canada's role in world military exporting. He expounded on the guilt of Canada's role in the distribution of arms. In the past I looked into this issue and was quite appalled that Canadian companies were producing parts that were then assembled into landmines in other countries. All this despite the Ban on landmines being signed in Ottawa.
[This reminds me of Asbestos, Quebec. It's a city in Quebec that exports asbestos to India despite it being banned by the Canadian government for use in Canadian homes. To read more visit this story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2009/06/10/f-asbestos-safety.html]
There were parts of the conversation I did not record, but I got the sense that war is a real part of what is normal for this gentleman and perhaps the culture at large. I recall being at a washroom in the Baltimore Airport some years back and hearing the following come on the PA: "This is a code orange. Threat level is code orange." It put me on edge, but I can only imagine what it would be like to have these messages communicated consistently for a decade. What is the goal of this "war on terror" and when will it end? There seems to be no end in sight, rather a greater pushing towards further militarization.
Could that be the goal of what President Eisenhower warned of in his farewell speech to the nation, namely that we "must not fail to
comprehend its [the military industrial complex] grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood
are all involved; so is the very structure of our society." (See this two minute youtube video of the speech).
I leave you with some statistics. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (http://www.sipri.org/research/armaments/milex/), in 2011 the US spent 4.7% of it's GDP on military expenditures (that is $2,000 per US citizen). This is a total of $711 billion, which is a 59% increase over 2002 figures. The US is not alone in this frightening trend. Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia have realized sizable increases in their military expenditures. Overall, the world has increased military expenditures 42% over the past decade.
What happened in the last round of an arms build-up in the world (i.e the cold war)? We have observed a proliferation of small arms in very unstable countries in the majority world.
Let's talk about these issues and be aware of what is going on. The truth is out there somewhere. Let's work together to find it and all along the journey, above all, to love.
"America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect." Dwight D. Eisenhower 1961
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