Who benefits?
The “take note” debate in Parliament that wasn’t a debate at all has come and gone. But the fact remains that according to some polls, public support for the presence of Canadian forces in Afghanistan is evenly divided between the pros and cons.
It’s so easy for all of us here, thousands of miles from Kandahar, to pass judgment on what’s right and what’s wrong. Personally, as an ex soldier, my heart goes out to Canadians over there but my head asks the age-old question: Who really profits from war?
President Eisenhower at the end of his term of office warned Americans against he rise of the military-industrial complex. Today, the endless parade of new weaponry seems to flow as easily as the coming and going of new computer software. And in no time, it’s obsolete.
Industries create these engines of war to satisfy the military’s demands for bigger and more lethal weaponry. As thousands around the world are slaughtered daily, the only real beneficiaries’ are the executives, shareholders and employees of arms manufacturers far out of harm’s way.