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Thursday March 28, 2024

Investing in death and destruction

By Abdul Sattar
May 20, 2020

The writer is a freelance journalist.

Amidst the ravages of the coronavirus outbreak, world leaders seem to be busy preparing for another terrible war, which might geopardise the very existence of humankind. This time the venue of the clash might be beyond the limits of this earth.

Those who failed to break the tentacles of this deadly disease on earth are planning to conquer space once again. Last Friday, Donald Trump, the erratic incumbent of the Oval Office, who is known for coming up with strange things, announced that his government was developing what he called ‘a super duper missile’ to outpace military rivals including Russia and China. He claimed that this much-vaunted missile could travel 17 times faster than the speed of sound. Russia and China are believed to have hypersonic missile travelling five and six times faster than the speed of sound respectively. The euphoric president also unveiled the flag of his space force on the occasion.

It is interesting to note that the Republican government which complains about the lack of funds to fight Covid-19, and which miserably failed to dispatch the much-needed ventilators and PPEs to US health facilities, has the time and the resources to squander the precious wealth of the American people on this useless project. Such moves would not only geopardise the world’s peace but will also prove disastrous for the environment.

Last year, the administration planned to raise a 15000 personnel Space Force which would cost $2 billion over five years. This seems to be a conservative estimate because in September 2018, Secretary Air Force Heather Wilson had floated a cost of $13 billion for the Force. Many critics claim that these costs are in addition to the roughly $10 billion that the Department of Defense is spending on the unclassified space programme.

This belligerent move may have created a ripple of excitement among the war-mongers sitting in the power-corridors of Washington but for the many helpless American families, whose loved ones perished after the brutal onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic, this is totally disappointing. At the time when American health facilities are getting overwhelmed and people are finding it hard to escape the cruel attack of the outbreak, their government should have come up with a plan that could extend help and succor to them instead of one that is likely to snatch more basic necessities from them in the name of defence. The outbreak of the virus and the loss of precious lives should have served as a reminder to the US administration that the real protection lies in investing on health, housing, education and environment and not on the tools of wars that have given nothing to an ordinary American except death and maiming.

The move on the part of the Trump administration is likely to trigger an arms race in space. Soon China and Russia might also come up with their own plan to prepare space forces. The states in European continent would not like to lag behind in this senseless race. Rising economic power India with a right-wing Hindu prime minister whose entire political career was boosted due to war rhetoric could also become the part of this race by pushing millions of more Indians below the poverty line. The pariah state of North Korea with its meagre resources might also consider conquering space at the cost of ignoring the needs of its citizens, which in turn would prompt Japan and South Korea to seek collaboration over a space programme with Washington. Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan may not be in a position to prepare their own space forces but they could also ally with one or another big power to have a share in this senseless race of space warfare.

Most of the above mentioned states are rivals at the political, economic and diplomatic fronts. A number of these countries are also actively involved in conflicts the world over. So, the superiority of one country in space would ratchet up tensions on earth. An edge in space cannot only be used to advance military objectives but can also be employed to serve commercial interests. With the advent of 5G, any edge of the US in space could geopardise Chinese and Russian interests which could be vehemently opposed or possibly fiercely resisted. Such a scenario would be catastrophic because the three global powers are armed with deadly nuclear weapons that could not only obliterate the very existence of these three powerful states but that of the planet as well.

Therefore, all those who love this beautiful world and its stunning beauty should come forward and force their governments to let sanity prevail. The American people have a special duty to resist such a senseless move because their government is the one that allocates the highest amount of public money on arms and defence; their forces are the only ones that have presence in more than 150 states of the world; their warmongers are the ones who have militarily intervened more than 223 times since the establishment of the republic; and their leaders are the ones who are still planning to wreak havoc with the lives of millions by invading more states.

But it does not necessarily mean that China and Russia are pacifists. In fact, China is the second biggest defence spender in the world. In recent years, it has also adopted a belligerent position, defying international laws and norms. Its rising military might is threatening the states of the region. If Beijing wants to follow a prudent path then it must allay the fears of its neighbours and other countries of the region. China must become a part of an international campaign to denuclearize the world and spring into action for the arms control that is claiming tens of thousands of lives every year.

Russia did not learn from the demise of the Soviet Union that at one time possessed more than 28000 nuclear warheads but despite having such great might was unable to tide over the wave of death unleashed by Chernobyl. Despite being a superpower, its people had to stand in long queues to get just a few eggs and some pieces of bread. The dissolution of the USSR was a clear message to the ruling elite of Moscow but it seems they did not understand it. The declaration of the people, thronging the streets of the former Soviet Union just before its apocalyptic demise, was abundantly clear, telling the ruling elite: “We do not care about the massive stock piles of lethal arms. We are least bothered about the phenomenal size of Russian army. What matters is proper food on our table, a decent housing for every citizen and essential commodities for every soul that lives in this giant country.” It seems that Moscow did not pay any heed to such a stark warning and is again indulging in a senseless war as well as military spending.

The Covid-19 outbreak has taught us that it is not the lavish spending on arms and ammunition that will protect the people but investment in people and their needs that will ensure not only a healthy and prosperous country but a healthy planet as well. Washington, Moscow and Beijing have an historic duty to join hands to fight not only the coronavirus pandemic collectively but also to make hectic efforts to ensure that such a calamity does not revisit us in the future. This can be done by making a pledge to spend on people rather than hypersonic missiles, deadly arms and destructive wars.

Email: egalitarianism444@gmail.com