[Arktwo] As of this week:
Bruce Beach
language@webpal.org
Sun, 27 May 2007 20:42:21 -0400
The US Congress
has completely rolled over
on any get out of Iraq plans.
More, more, and still more troops
are being sent to the Iraq/Iran theatre.
The rate of US casualties
is increasing.
Bombings and terrorist strikes
are taking a daily civilian toll
in Iraq
that equates to a monthly toll
equal to the 9/11 event at
the World Trade Center.
The war in Lebanon with Hezbollah
has daily casualties
that are now sometimes equal
to the Lebanon War Two with Israel.
The conflict between Gaza and Israel
is seeing dozens of rockets
land on Israel daily
and Israeli retaliation
is creating mounting casualties in Gaza
along with those from the infighting there.
Iran is acknowledged to now have
3000 operating centrifuges.
The UN International Atomic Energy Agency
has completely rolled over on that -
and said let them keep them.
El Baredi has pointed out
that people will not like to hear it
but any red lines in Iran
about their having production ability
have been completely crossed -
and nothing now can be done about it.
Russia will activate next month -
very advanced missiles
in protection of Moscow.
Ones that can go thousands of miles
with much more powerful warheads.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070521/65806197.html
The US is further cancelling
previous disarmament agreements.
US talks with Syria have been tossed -
and Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas
are all becoming much more vocal
in their calls for action
against the US and Israel.
North Korea has made new missile tests.
And I might mention
that there is great excitement this week
about the Ukraine
- not to mention what is going on
in Pakistan
--------------
All of that -
and much more -
just this week.
So much for Beach's expectations
of a quiet summer.
Today being Memorial Day
in the USA
a day originally proclaimed to commemorate
US soldiers fallen in battle -
I thought to compile the following chart.
I used three major sources:
Figures from the
Congressional Research Service,
via The Washington Post, 10 Sept 2003
http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/other/stats/warcost.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004615.html
and a number of other sources.
Numbers are all over the place -
and I have tried to reduce these
to battlefield casualties.
These numbers do not include
MIA, other war related deaths -
and of course the number wounded
was absolutely horrendous.
Also it does not include the
even much greater numbers on the other side -
nor the millions of civilians that were killed.
When we add those numbers -
the numbers killed in the wars
goes into the many hundreds of millions.
For similar accounting reasons -
I didn't include the American Indian wars.
Like the civil war -
it was Americans killing Americans.
The Civil War was the great American tragedy.
When you look at the numbers
(I have rounded my numbers off
to the nearest thousand)
and consider especially the
percentage of the population
that amounted to.
Anyway - here the second number
is the rounded off number in thousands
that were killed in each war
along with the costs in billions
of each war.
$ 3.2 25 American Revolution 1775-1783
$ 1.0 2 War of 1812
$ 1.8 13 Mexican War 1846-1848
$ 71.8 185 Civil War 1861-1865
$ 6.5 3 Spanish-American War 1898
4 Philippines War 1899-1902
$ 588.0 54 World War I 1917-1918
Russia War 1918-1920 (416)
$4,800.0 292 World War II 1941-1945
$ 408.0 34 Korean War 1950-1953 142,000
$ 584.0 47 Vietnam War 1964-1972
$ 82.0 Persian Gulf War 1990-1991 (148)
The present conflict in Iraq
amounts to less than
one half of one percent -
of the total of the top ten above
for American soldiers killed in battle.
I assure you that many more will be killed
in US traffic accidents
over the Memorial Day weekend
than there will be US military killed in Iraq.
I have concerns
that something more similar
to the US Civil War
will happen in the future
from breakdown of the social structure
after a nuclear war.
One of the major recipients of slaughter
will this time be the blacks
and other non-whites -
because as much as Americans like to think
that they have solved the racial problem -
they have not -
and they remain very racist.
>From my point of view
the costs of war
are also greatly understated -
because the US is still paying interest
on WW2 and all the others since.
The additional hidden veteran costs
and losses to families are beyond calculation.
I haven't shown costs or casualties
for the current Iraqi conflict -
but in terms of the US casualties
you can see that is a relatively low
single digit conflict.
While every soul is important -
I am particularly saddened
by what happens to civilians
in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan,
among the Palestinians,
and in many, many other places
in Africa and South East Asia,
and elsewhere.
What concerns me most
is not what is happening -
but rather what I think
is about to happen.
I am not wanting to rain
on your Memorial Day Parade -
so enough of that.
---------------------------------------------
An informative outlook
came my way this week
while looking at how robots
are being used
by the US in warfare.
http://tinyurl.com/3bc5wt
Rodney Brooks,
a professor of robotics at MIT,
has pointed out four specific
current research goals.
1. the object recognition capabilities
of a 2-year-old child,
2. the language understanding
of a 4-year-old,
3. the manual dexterity
of a 6-year-old,
4. and the social understanding
of an 8-year-old child –
e.g. knowing the difference
between what you say
and your actual intent.
I have been quite interested in Robots
for a long time,
and have been instrumental
in building a number
that have seen some notable service,
so this definitive description
of the goals -
greatly appeals to me.
------------
Technology progresses -
and it always seems to be warfare
that pushes it along the most.
The state of the art in
Airplanes,
Electronics (TV from radar)
Computers (from artillery projections)
Plastics (Nylon for parachutes started that)
Internet
Satellites
and most everything that distinguishes
the modern technological world
is the result of military budgets.
All of these things,
and many more such as
Robots
Lasers
continue to develop on military budgets.
We also continue to build
more and 'better' nukes.
What I wonder is
'when will enough nuclear weapons -
be enough?'
http://www.alternet.org/story/51368/
------------
Where humanity is not progressing -
is spiritually.
Indeed -
in that area it has plunged into
the abyss of materiality and immorality.
My hope is -
that nuclear war
will cause humanity to see
the error of its ways
and turn back
to loving God -
and to trying to serve
one's fellow man.
Many of my readers
despair of this hope -
and I must say that
I find myself to have a local problem.
Recently,
two different groups have asked
to visit Ark Two -
and I have agreed.
They both appeared with their beer bottles -
and profane language.
While they did not make any disparaging remarks
one could tell
that they looked upon the whole thing with disdain
and there was certainly not any encouragement.
Yet,
these visitors -
numbering in total around forty -
are representative of the local community.
Probably on average with
a high school or less education.
Over ninety percent of them
haven't stepped into a church
in ten years
unless it was for a funeral or wedding.
Of all the news items
that I have mentioned in this newsletter -
they wouldn't collectively be aware
of more than ten percent of the items -
and reciting the items to them -
would go right over their heads -
and they wouldn't be able to summarize
or mention more than ten percent of them
immediately after hearing them.
The ideas behind Ark Two
are presently completely incomprehensible to them -
and I am concerned that they will ever be able
to comprehend them
or be motivated to act upon them.
Oftentimes on warm evenings
there blasts through the village -
the loud rap songs from the parties
that go on through the night into
three and four in the morning.
I won't repeat any of lyrics -
because most people
know what music is like today.
Plato said:
"In order to take the spiritual temperature
of an individual or society,
one must mark the music."
Socrates once remarked -
that he didn't care what was taught
to children in the schools
so long as he could control the music
and he thought it the most important part
of the Guardians' education.
When I was a young man -
I listened over and over
to the following song.
Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald
were my favourite singers,
with songs like 'Indian Love Call'.
Nelson Eddy wore the red uniform
of the Canadian Mounted Police
in singing this song.
--------------
You who have dreams
If you act, they'll come true
To turn your dreams to a fact
It's up to you
If you have the soul and the spirit
Never fear it, you'll see it through
Hearts can inspire
Other hearts with their fire
For the strong obey
When a strong man shows them the way
Give me some men who are stout-hearted men
Who will fight for the right they adore
Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men
And I'll soon give you ten thousand more-ore
Shoulder to shoulder, and bolder and bolder
They grow as they go to the fore
Then there's nothing in the world
Can halt or mar a plan
When stout-hearted men
Can stick together - man - to man...
Oh...
Give me some men who are stout-hearted men
Who will fight for the right they adore
Start me with ten who are stout-hearted men
And I'll soon give you ten thousand more-ore
Shoulder to shoulder, and bolder and bolder
They grow as they go to the fore
Then there's nothing in the world
Can halt or mar a plan
When stout-hearted men
Can stick together - man - to man...
(Give me some men who are stout-hearted men) [fade]
---------
Yes, how greatly I wish -
how greatly I hope -
that I can find -
that there will come -
ten stout-hearted men -
capable intelligent people -
men and women -
young people and mature -
who will forward the vision
of Ark Two.
Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org