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Armament expenditure
Arms makers and the limits of responsibility
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14 December 2011
NAJ Taylor
At present, arms makers are not held accountable for their negative impact on society [EPA]
Melbourne, Australia - This is the second in a three-part essay that explores an often neglected aspects of corporate responsibility: the paradox of a "responsible" arms maker. The author argues that the impact on society - inherent in the deployment and threat of weapon use - makes a standard of corporate responsibility difficult to apply. Instead, the author argues, those interested in corporate behaviour must view such firms through a "corporate social irresponsibility" lens, a strategy that identifies and allows a response to be made to normative developments, through proactive engagement and divestment strategies.
At A$4tn ($4.08tn), Australia has the fourth largest investment market in the world - largely thanks to the nine per cent employee superannuation pension guarantee. Pension funds control about 75 per cent of Australia's investment capital and will continue to do so as long as the compulsory system remains. Therefore, despite employing a number of external service providers to advise, implement and assess the performance of the fund, pension funds are at the heart of the investment markets; their actions are carefully and deliberately governed by a system of trust law.
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As the Drone Flies
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28 September 2011
by RALPH NADER
The fast developing predator drone technology, officially called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, is becoming so dominant and so beyond any restraining framework of law or ethics, that its use by the U.S. government around the world may invite a horrific blowback.
First some background. The Pentagon has about 7,000 aerial drones. Ten years ago there were less than 50. According to the website longwarjournal.com, they have destroyed about 1900 insurgents in Pakistan’s tribal regions. How these fighters are so clearly distinguished from civilians in those mountain areas is not clear.
Nor is it clear how or from whom the government gets such “precise” information about the guerilla leaders’ whereabouts night and day. The drones are beyond any counterattack—flying often at 50,000 feet. But the Air Force has recognized that a third of the Predators have crashed by themselves.
Compared to mass transit, housing, energy technology, infection control, food and drug safety, the innovation in the world of drones is incredible. Coming soon are hummingbird sized drones, submersible drones and software driven autonomous UAVs. The Washington Post described these inventions as “aircraft [that] would hunt, identify and fire at [the] enemy—all on its own.” It is called “lethal autonomy” in the trade.
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Kürecik to protest deployment of NATO early warning radar system in Turkey
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20 September 2011
İSTANBUL
The deployment of a NATO warning system in Malatya’s Kürecik district has come under harsh criticism by opposition parties and the residents of the region.
Residents of Malatya's Kürecik district met on Sunday to announce that on Oct. 2 they will hold a protest against the NATO radar system that is to be deployed within the boundaries of their town.
Residents of Malatya's Kürecik district staged a protest on Sunday against the deployment of a NATO early warning radar system in the region that will protect NATO countries against potential missile threats from Russia and Iran. The Kürecik Mutual Benefit and Relief Association held a meeting in which the decision to organize a protest was accepted by residents and is expected to be widely attended.
Association President İbrahim Duman declared, “We, the residents of Kürecik, announce that we are against all variety of things that can harm humanity.” He added, “We are against war and any type of mechanism that serves war.”
It was agreed last week that Turkey will station an early warning radar system as part of NATO's missile defense system in Kürecik, which is widely opposed not just by residents but by many others in the region. The US-operated early warning radar system, to be implemented under NATO's umbrella, will be protected by 50 US soldiers who will be responsible for internal security at the Kürecik radar base.
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Ciberguerrilla revela paso de información privilegiada sobre rebaja de calificación a fabricante de drones asesinos
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27 August 2011
Antifascist
Antifascist Calling
Traducido del inglés (English here) para Rebelión por Germán Leyens.
Vivimos en una época en la cual operaciones con información privilegiada, conflictos de interés, y puertas giratorias entre “reguladores” y “regulados” (lubricadas con océanos de dinero), acompañan el saqueo generalizado de la riqueza social por elites capitalistas de conducta anormal.
El que semejante conducta de nuestros amos corporativos ya no llegue a producir un levantamiento de cejas, y mucho menos aún provoque acción de las autoridades encargadas de impedir que granujas criminales destruyan las vidas de otra gente, es una señal inconfundible de que el tan elogiado sistema de “libre mercado”, tiene la mirada fija en un abismo de su propia creación, y ha entrado a una fase terminal.
Ahora parece que personas con información privilegiada en Standard and Poor's o el Departamento del Tesoro, lo que queráis, pueden haber filtrado información a clientes predilectos sobre la reciente rebaja de la calificación de EE.UU., y la confirmación proviene de una fuente sorprendente.
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Cost of Treating Veterans Will Rise Long Past Wars
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28 July 2011
Philip Scott Andrews/The New York Times. Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
WASHINGTON — Though the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan will save the nation billions of dollars a year, another cost of war is projected to continue rising for decades to come: caring for the veterans
By one measure, the cost of health care and disability compensation for veterans from those conflicts and all previous American wars ranks among the largest for the federal government — less than the military, Social Security and health care programs including Medicare, but nearly the same as paying interest on the national debt, the Treasury Department says.
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War Fatigue and the Uncritical Critics of War
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23 July 2011
From Iraq to Afghanistan to Libya, the first decade of the 21st century has solidified the U.S. reputation as the energizer bunny of war. While these conflicts continue to rage on, there are a growing number of signs that even the United States has a limit to how much war it is willing to wage.
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'War on terror' set to surpass cost of Second World War
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30 June 2011
The total cost to America of its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus the related military operations in Pakistan, is set to exceed $4 trillion – more than three times the sum so far authorised by Congress in the decade since the 9/11 attacks.
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EEUU prevé exportar este año un 45% más de armas que en 2010
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12 June 2011
En una conferencia de prensa, el director de la Agencia de Defensa, Seguridad y Cooperación de Estados Unidos (DSCA), William Landay, apuntó, no obstante, a la posibilidad de que Washington sea incapaz de hacer frente a todos sus pedidos.
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Boeing seals $30bn US defence deal
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25 February 2011
Analysts had expected EADS to underbid Boeing aggressively for the refuelling aircraft contract [EPA]
Boeing, the American aerospace firm, has won a $30bn contract for 179 new US air force mid-air refueling aircraft, beating out Airbus's parent company, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) company .
The US defence department announced on Thursday that the company was the "clear winner" in the fiercely contested competition to replace 50-year-old Boeing-manufactured KC-135 Stratotankers.
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Dmitry Medvedev welcomes US nuclear arms treaty
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25 December 2010
Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, has welcomed New Start, the nuclear arms reduction treaty with the US. Photograph: Konstantin Zavrazhin/Getty Images
MPs in Russia could approve a new strategic arms reduction treaty with the US as early as tomorrow after President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed the pact.
The country's overwhelmingly pro-Kremlin parliament is likely to push the agreement through swiftly, despite doubts over Washington's desire to station a missile defence shield in Europe.
Medvedev's office said today he was "pleased to learn that the United States Senate has ratified the Start Treaty and expressed hope that the State Duma and the Federation Council [lower and upper houses of parliament] will be ready to consider this issue shortly and to ratify the document".
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More Articles...
- The Search for a New NATO Strategy
- The future of NATO
- Experts call for more transparency in Turkish arms buys
- The Real Merchants of Death
- Pentagon Can’t Account for $8.7 Billion in Iraqi Reconstruction Funds
- House Approves More Afghan War Funding
- Congressional Report: $1 Trillion Spent on Wars Since 9/11
- States failing to control movement of weapons to human rights abusers
