Ever
think
about names of U.S. weapons of
war? Rarely are those names
honest. I do applaud the relative
honesty of Predator and Reaper
drones, because those names
capture the often predatory nature
of U.S. foreign policy and the
grim reaperish means that are
often employed in its execution.
Most names are not so suggestive.
For example, U.S. fighter planes
carry noble names like Eagle,
Fighting Falcon, or Raptor.
Nuclear bombers are an interesting
case since they can carry
thermonuclear bombs and missiles
to kill hundreds of thousands,
possibly millions, of people. So
we have the B-52 Stratofortress (a
great 1950s-era name), the B-1
Lancer, the B-2 Spirit, and the new
B-21
Raider
(the name has historical echoes to
the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in
1942).
Reaping
what we sow? Just reaping? Whatever the
case, the U.S. way of war is grim
Shouldn’t
these bombers carry names like Megadeath
or Mass Murder?
Think too
of nuclear missiles. The Air Force’s
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles
(ICBMs) have had names like Titan,
Minuteman, Peacekeeper, and now the new
Sentinel. But since these missiles carry
warheads that could easily kill millions,
wouldn’t a more honest name be The
Holocaust ICBM? For that’s what these
missiles promise: a nuclear holocaust.
Consider
too
the Navy’s Ohio-class
nuclear missile-firing submarines
(SSBN) with their Trident
missiles. (Trident—gotta
hand
it to the Navy.) Just one
submarine can carry 20 Trident II
missiles, each with up to eight
warheads, each warhead being
roughly equivalent to six
Hiroshima bombs. Again, roughly
speaking, each of these submarines
carries an arsenal equivalent to
one thousand Hiroshima bombs. And
the U.S. has fourteen of these
submarines.
Instead
of
the Ohio-class
of
submarines, shouldn’t they be
called the Armageddon-class? Or
the Apocalypse-class? The
Genocide-class?
With
a
bit more honesty, perhaps it
wouldn’t be so easy to sell these
horrific weapons to Congress and
the American people. Then again,
when the bottom line is higher
budgets for the Pentagon and more
jobs for Congressional districts,
I guess America will buy most
anything. Even Holocaust missiles
and Armageddon submarines. And for
upwards of $2
trillion
over the next 30 years as well.
If they
don’t bust the budget, perhaps they’ll
destroy the world.
