The rich, glorious and lethal history of corporate criminality and wholesale disregard for human life can never ever be overstated.
However, the predatory profit driven horrors of big tobacco and Exxon are dwarfed by the recent contract awarded Northrup Grumman by the United States Air Force. In September Northrup Grumman was awarded a $13.3 billion contract to engineer and manufacture 600 intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. And this $13.3 billion is just a fraction of the staggering costs inherent with our commitment to “nuclear modernization.” Just one of these missiles will be able to travel some 6,000 miles carrying a warhead 20 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Just one of these weapons could kill hundreds of thousands of people.
We need to come to terms with this apocalyptic horror. How can a nation that embraces and advocates democracy simultaneously award a multi-billion dollars first-strike nuclear weapon contract to a private corporation intent on maximizing profit? We are paying a corporation staggering sums to build nuclear weapons of such lethality that if ever used would end human civilization and life on earth as we know it. Perhaps the observation from retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, who went on to become the 26th U.S. Secretary of Defense in 2015 is important and newsworthy. Mattis advised us that getting rid of land-based missiles “would reduce the false alarm danger” inherent with these weapons. The reality is this:“nuclear modernization” if left unchecked and allowed to proceed as planned will make the epic criminality and slaughter orchestrated by big tobacco/big oil seem like a school yard prank in comparison. We the people need to meet this reality head on if we’re to survive.
Jim Sawyer
Edmonds
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