Can the “defence” mentality take hold here?

(Canscene) — President Eisenhower at the end of his term of office warned  Americans about the growth of the military/industrial complex. Somewhere along the line, though, people stopped listening.

Somewhere along the line the much-reviled armaments game — which not only fuels wars but furnishes the fire power for gangsters to blow one another (and innocent bystanders) away — became the “defence industries.”

Under this spin the  military cries for bigger and better weapons which even before firing become obsolete.  And the defence industries supply these demands  as their CEOs, shareholders, suppliers  and employees prosper.

Defence minister once arms lobbyist
The new combination of a Canadian defence minister who, according to his official biography was once a lobbyist for several defence industries and a general who spits fire appears to be working toward creating a “defence” mentality among Canadians, which has nothing to do with the original intentions of our military mission to Afghanistan.

By barring media from attending the return of dead soldiers, by dithering over  the raising and lowering of he Maple Leaf flag to signal respect for the dead,  it seems that the Harper-O’Connor-Hillier axis seems set on treating war as an everyday occurrence.

Is this their design?  Soldiers lose their lives and we become so accustomed to it that casualties eventually drop from the news, forgetting the immortal words of the poet John Donne:  ‘any man’s death diminishes me”    ?

In this way, we all become collateral damage.
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