If this site was a spoof, it would be funny. However, as very much NOT a
post-modernist, I'd agree with David Wood and say GO TAKE A LOOK. It
almost looks (horribly) like the opening to a Paul Verhoven (Robocop;
Starship Troopers) movie, with a tag line about "stewardship of space" (!!)
and developing "full warfighting capabilities" (....). Perhaps the most
ominous is the stuff about the necessity to protect U.S. national interests
and INVESTMENT....
If you want to be very scared (and for any of you
>postmodernists our there, have a good laugh), go to
>http://www.spacecom.af.mil/usspace/, that is the United States Space
>Command, which is rapidly becoming the most important branch of the US
>armed forces, and take a look at their 'Vision 2020', their totally open
>and frank plan for total control of Space and therefore space (and people)
>on earth in the interests of US military and commercial objectives.
>
>Perhaps the most scary thing about the whole document is the terrible
>cartoon-like graphics and at once macho and naive style (including one of
>the title pages done like the opening of 'Star Wars'), which just shows
>that these people inhabit a completely different mental (but unfortunately
>not physical) space than the one we think we know...
>
>
>
>David.
>
>
>PS: On the other hand, here is the good news:
>
>URGENT PRESS RELEASE 1.2.99
>NUCLEAR TRIDENT DISARMED BY TRIDENT 2000 ACTIVIST WOMEN
>
>In the early hours of this morning two peace activist women, from the
>Aldermaston Women's Group, safely and non-violently carried out
>disarmament
>work, to prevent the new British Trident submarine from leaving its
>dock.
>This vehicle for nuclear weapons of mass destruction was due to sail
>within
>the next month.
>The women are Rosie James and Rachel Wenham, both from Leeds. The women
>swam 300 metres in wet suits into the Vickers dock yard at Barrow in
>Furness to reach HMS Vengeance. They swam in freezing conditions in the
>dark with their disarmament equipment of hammers, chisels, crowbars,
>screwdrivers and paint. The women then climbed around the submarine and
>dismantled radio equipment used to launch weapons of mass destruction.
>Both
>have been arrested and are being held in police custody at Barrow. Since
>August 1998, this is the second disarmament action at Barrow, and the
>third
>swimming action - the others being at Faslane in Scotland.
>The imminent threat of a nuclear conflict is such that the women had no
>alternative but to carry out this task of preventing a new vehicle for
>these weapons of mass destruction being even tested. This threat to us
>all
>comes from the facts that
>* the British Trident submarine Vanguard was on patrol around Gibraltar
>during the Gulf crises
>* from the allegiance displayed between Blair and Clinton in the latest
>Gulf war, there is little doubt that Blair would follow a U.S.
>military lead
>* the current British Strategic Defence Policy indicates that the UK
>would
>contravene International Law, by launching a nuclear attack even if the
>sovereignty of the nation itself is not directly threatened.
>These facts together denote that although the Trident weapon has not
>been
>used so far, the illegal threat is constant - so the danger of it being
>used is imminent.
>A single Trident warhead is 8 times more powerful than those detonated
>over
>the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Due to this enormous explosive
>yield,
>these weapons are in direct contravention of International Law governing
>War, Human Rights, the Environment and Genocide.
>Rachel Wenham states "as a citizen of the world, I have upheld the
>Nuremberg Principles in acting to prevent the crime of mass murder from
>being threatened and committed".
>The women support the campaign Trident Ploughshares 2000. This is
>committed
>to the implementation of the decommissioning of the Trident programme by
>the year 2000. The UK Government refuses to recognise the illegality
>of the
>Trident warheads, and continues their criminal activities of maintaining
>and deploying these weapons. TP2000 activists uphold the law -
>including by
>disarming the system themselves. The women state: "In this world where
>in
>the arena of War instantaneous mass murder of innocents is an accepted
>possibility, we, the said mass, have the unalienable right to protect
>our
>rights to life and peace".
>
>Trident Ploughshares 2000
>42-46 Bethel Street
>Norwich
>Norfolk
>NR2 1NR
>
>tel + 44 (0) 1603 611953
>fax + 44 (0) 1603 666879
>http://www.gn.apc.org/tp2000/
>
>
>
>Email : [log in to unmask]
>
>Nuclear weapons are immoral, dangerous, polluting, a terrible waste of
>resources and were found to be generally illegal by the International
>Court
>of Justice on 8th July 1996.
>
>
>David Wood
>PhD Student ('The Rural Peace Dividend')
>Department of Agricultural Economics and Food Marketing
>University of Newcastle upon Tyne
>NE1 7RU
>
>Tel: 0191 222 5305
>
>
>
>
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