11.12.09
Firepower
Okay, so I thought I should blog about something other than yarn and food this time. . . I’m still in the midst of reading Sven Lindqvist’s book A History of Bombing, so I will reserve comment until I’m finished or near finished. I’ll explain why if I ever get to that post. But along the same lines, my boys and I have been watching a video series called Firepower. It’s an interesting four part series about the latest in defense and aerospace technology that is no longer classified. We’ve only watched about two discs so far. According to the back of the disc it states:
This 4 disc set includes 20 half-hour epidodes:
Assault from the sea
Artillery strike
Battle Tanks
Missile Copter
Special Ops: Wings
Royal air Force
Airborne Assault
Strike Fighters
War on Wheels
Mirage Jet
Combat vehicles
Armor force
Desert War Games
Armored Vanguard
Destroyer
Warship
Test Pilot
Wild Weasels
Strategic Air Power
Stealth Jets
It’s amazing to see the advancements that have been made in our military. I haven’t yet seen the space stuff, so can’t really comment on that, yet. While watching this, I couldn’t help thinking about the cost of all this technology, the damages to life and the environment as a result of this technology, and where do these mad geniuses come from that are able to think up all of this stuff? I couldn’t help joking ask Brian and my boys if these things were really thought up in the minds of geniuses here, or did they get the information from beating up those Rosewell crash aliens? LOLOL Yeah, you know, the Terminator reverse engineering stuff starts to look logical, ha!
I have heard it quoted that of all the money in the world spent on military, the U.S. spends more than half. Proportionately, the U.S. is that much ahead technology-wise and supply-wise of all the military in the world. At least that is what we are lead to believe. The idea that the U.S. spends that much on military is staggering to me. But as I watched this Firepower DVD series, which showcases the variety of weaponry and vehicles used by our military, I can understand why so many billions of dollars is spent. Not that I agree that it’s a good investment, but that all this gadgetry is so darned expensive that it could easily run into the billions of dollars to engineer, construct, operate, and maintain. For instance, there was a section on the Stealth Jets. One B2 cost over half a billion dollars to build. “ONE” jet. I don’t think that’s counting training the personnel to fly it, maintain it, fuel it, and what happens when it gets shot down or is downed by accident? How many of these things does our military have? And that’s only “one” model jet. They have many, many more, including land terrain vehicles and sea vessels. Speaking of training crew, one model jet called the “Spooky,” operates with a 14-man crew. They need that many men because the Spooky has mounted guns fixed to the sides–three or four men are required to operate one gun. According to the video, they practice every day. Another jet called the “Spector” is outfitted with a Howitzer. . . All that fuel and spent ammunition/bombs/missiles or whatever projectile they happen to be using must cost a pretty penny daily just to train. It’s no surprise our country is so heavily in debt.
I can’t deny that these military crafts and gadgetry are impressive. I’ve always enjoyed watching James Bond movies particularly for the gadgetry. What 007 fan didn’t love Q Division, aka Quartermaster, aka Q? But at the same time I can’t help thinking about the writings of Sven Lindqvist, particularly when he asked “who do they use these weapons against?” The ugly truth is that real military equipment is not used with as much percission as the 007 movies. It’s not only the “bad” guys that get blown away. In real life many hundreds and thousands of innocent men, women, and children have gotten blown away as a result of these inventions. With today’s technology, the person pulling the trigger doesn’t even have to be close enough to see his victims. He never has to see their pain and suffering, their limbs tore apart, their blood and guts gushing to the ground, their deaths, or their life-long injuries. I have to ask myself what kind of a world do we live in where these actions are what makes our heroes? And I understand more and more that the Bible rightly states that our world is in the bosom of the evil one.
And then there’s the issue of “who comes up with all the stuff?” Whoever they are, they are brilliant, even though I think they have to be pretty detached to humanity to some degree to feel it’s okay to develop these things for the express purpose of war (or extremely naive to think that only the opposing armed military will be victims of these weapons). I’m personally not fond or agree with the “ends justifies the means” logic. Also, I can’t imagine that these brilliant minds are only Americans. So I looked up which countries build and develop these military aircraft. In relation to all the world, it’s really just a handful of countries that build these. Aside from the U.S. countries like Russia, Germany, France, England, Japan, etc. engage in manufacturing and development of these technologies. Then they sell them to other countries to use. . . What makes them different?
Okay, it appears I’m out of blogging time again. . . grrr. I’ll probably continue on with a rant on this another time, heheh. For now, must dash. Matty wants to visit a particular store which closes in a couple hours. Need to beat traffic. . .
Marlakins
P.S. So far I’m giving the DVD series Firepower a thumbs up. Still haven’t seen it all, but it’s pretty good so far. . .
