A Cancer for your children, grandchildren...
Everybody knows that modern living anywhere is equivalent to daily contact with circumstances, products, appliances, processes, substances, and so forth that may be bad for your health. It can be considered the payment for modern comfort, if you have it. What you may not be aware of, and certainly not related to comfort, is the already obscene quantities of money and resources the USA spends in researching, testing and producing all kinds of weapons, with further 'creation' (with or without quotation marks) of scenarios for their use. Big deal one may say: the USA is the most war dependent economy in all history of mankind.
Perhaps that is why it is not so surprising that some yankee military sectors have recently expressed a need -not very well identified- to cater costly overhaul funds for the USA nuclear missile infrastructure -is there another heavyweight opponent on sight? The requirements are for $2,000 millions of dlls. (NY Times April 03 2005). Meaning with this, that the already scanty funds for social development the world over, provided by the USA, shall evaporate. The american taxpayer and the poor countries foreign debt payments, shall contribute -no doubt- to generously integrate the potential American budget for this objective.
Shall this initiative start a new arms innovation race? One cannot refrain from asking the Americans: why the initiative? what for? Where's the big war? Hussein still? Bin Laden?, don't make me laugh!
I earnestly recommend a review of the book 'The Hidden Costs of War', a 2003 report by Howard S. Brembeck & the 4th Freedom Forum, which reads '...based on Pentagon spending projections, US military spending will total $4.3 trillion during this decade, with annual spending or (defense) topping of $500,000 millions/year by 2009...' -there is no need for words-.
Better still, read the brave and bright report by Ruth Leger Sivard 'World Military Expenses and Social Expenditures' 1996, about what the world can do on re-charting funds for social advancement -not advancement on civilian and children killing-. We invite
you to review some of her carefully weighted examples, such as the price of one nuclear powered submarine at $2,500 millions us dlls/unit, equivalent to funds which would allow 'immunization with added vaccines and micronutrients for the worlds children', or the price of one Stealth bomber at a sale price of $2,200 millions/unit which would allow, funds re-chartered, 'one year of family planning services for 120 millions women in poor countries', or the cost of one 707 class aircraft for target attack radar, at $387 millions/unit which would allow 'a year's treatment for 400,000 million poor countries' children with debilitating intestinal diseases'. Please do yourself a favor and read Ruth Leger Sivard.
Still many americans do not wake up? Then prepare to collect interests from the 'investment' you've given to future generations the world over, including yourselves.
Not accounting for new tests, arms, wars, arms spillage or accidents, the number of accumulated, estimated cancer fatalities to year 2,000, attributed to the 1892 tests around the world (yes, documented by various countries) is about 430,000. They were and are still caused among world population as a result of global fallout starting with tests about the 1940's (Radioactive Heaven and Earth, IPPNW, 1991) plus 'if the radiation exposure from C-14 is taken into account with its decay time lapse of a few thousand years, included ...2.4 million cancer deaths were, are and will be caused ...over the next few thousand years'!
The cancer incidence -higher than fatalities of course, some shall be cured- shall hit more on North America, Europe and Asia, after the above mentioned 518 atmospheric and 1374 underground tests, included the amazing Israeli-South African ones. A gift to future mankind, on behalf of western civilized nations, economically developed, to your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren ...and so on.