Beware ... The Military-Industrial Complex

Just as there is no noticeable shortage of munitions in the world, there will never be a lack of enterprising corporations whose business it is to produce them. Countries of the world usually consider the acquisition of the most recent possible generations of arms an absolute necessity to ensure their arsenals are up to date reflecting the latest technology. Their acquisition is necessarily costly, but as they represent a vital necessity to those making the decisions, the funding of their purchase is rarely an issue.

Should citizens of such countries be so bold as to wonder why the necessities of life are in short supply, that medicine, potable water, availability of nutritious foodstuffs seem in scarcity among a population, like North Korea, debilitated over generations of malnutrition, they are held to be examples of treasonous activity and treated accordingly. To prevent that poisonous atmosphere of enquiry from surfacing, children are taught at an early age the importance of their country's militarization.

North Korea, granted, represents uniquely. On the other hand, its partnership in the funding of nuclear science and ballistic missiles production with the Islamic Republic of Iran presents a situation where two rogue states whose military ambitions create anxiety for their neighbours can destabilize entire geographic regions, and the world at large. Zimbabwe, whose people starve under great privation thanks to their elderly dictator, will not see itself short of weapons.

The conveyance of advanced weaponry to parts of the world that are politically and socially unstable is commonplace enough. Both armament manufacturers and the countries in which they thrive are anxious to see them succeed and sell ever greater numbers of arms, tanks, jets, missile launchers. Of the goodness of their hearts, wealthy world powers like the United States see fit to grant massive amounts of (military) 'aid' to countries like Pakistan and Egypt, to enable them to better equip their armies.

The sale of arms and munitions by producing countries who hold their advanced technical formulae close to their hearts, and their profits equally close, ensures that more than enough munitions are in circulation in a world where poverty, malnutrition, disease and environmental catastrophes take more lives than the wars that result from weapons proliferation. But with security and triumphalism through arms-possession uppermost in mind, the invaluable trade in weapons is paramount to those who produce and those who buy.

Which is why it seems incredible that a country like Canada would seriously seek to increase its GDP and purportedly its self-reliance by initiating accelerated new production of weapons, both to service its own military needs and to open a greater position for itself on the world market of eager-to-acquire military technologies raging throughout the international community.

"This timely and coherent report truly strikes a chord with the defence and security industry in Canada. The panel (advising government on defence procurement policy) calls for urgent action by the government, and CADSI echoes this call", was the recent report in the news. CADSI being the self-serving Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries.

Five members comprise that panel, two of whom were industry executives, a third a retired army officer.  Domestic arms makers are to be encouraged through the generous provision of greater government subsidies to ramp up their research and production. Canada is prepared to invest in its own weapons-producing facilities, to enlarge them, and ensure they are capable of producing arms as advanced as any others.

This will spur job creation in Canada, and investment. With production taking place in Canada, there will no longer be a need to insist that foreign manufacturers from whom Canada makes its immensely costly and controversial purchases distribute some of the production and with that jobs within Canada. We will be self-sufficient in managing our own war machine.

It's a band-wagon we're eager to scramble onto because "many of the most highly industrialized countries have strategies that promote their defence-related industries". And besides, it will make those Canadian defence industries and Canada's armed forces, the latter upon whom the country truly relies, that much prouder of themselves and their capabilities.