A Single Round Bullet

A single round (bullet) for an AK-47 costs about .30. It can still pierce a human head/heart/other vital organ and kill said human.

Now, a single modern weapon, let’s say, for argument, a Javelin anti-tank missile:

“Manufactured by US weapons manufacturers Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, the Javelin costs $178,000, including the launch system and missile, according to the Pentagon’s 2021 budget. Each replacement missile costs around $78,000.”

With me so far? Okay, now the country of Ukraine has never been “approved” to be in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (neither was Vietnam, before that war, but Korea was, but that’s beside the point).

Without that “protection” from allies, Ukraine (or somebody — taxpayer?) has to pay for weapons donated from other countries (mostly the U.S., but others also). From one perspective, one might say that this is just another “proxy war,” similar to what the oil barons of Saudi Arabia are fighting in Yemen, and Syria is fighting against “rebels” (with Russia’s help). With me so far? Lots of proxy shit going on here, right? Also, a LOT OF MONEY changing hands. Right?

These folks (companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin) are part and parcel of what former President Dwight D. Eisenhower (not a bad general in his day) called the “Military Industrial Complex,” which is basically what he warned about before leaving office in the Fifties. This means, to put it simply, “a fast way for these companies to get contracts to sell big weapons to other countries.”

Wow, some have even argued that many of the USA’s “little skirmishes,” there have been so many I can’t even list them all here, are nothing more than “shopping skirmishes” so that other arms buyers can see how “effective” these weapons are against little countries that don’t have many weapons with which to use to fight back.

I am not a math guy. I failed math. But if you quickly try to get your calculator going on those figures, you can soon see that somebody, somewhere, is making a whole shitload of money, man! A lot of crank to sniff off the breasts of hookers (excuse me, sex workers).

So, when they tell me on the news that the war in the Ukraine will probably continue for “years,” I see those calculators revving up and spitting out numbers. However, as a pacifist, I first see all the bodies blown-up. Human bodies. Bodies that can appreciate children and sunsets and little kitties and puppies. You know. That sentimental bullshit that’s very real to pacifists. Even more real than a single AK-47 round.