-- Albert Einstein
In continuation:
He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
The U.S. currently (2001) budgets $306 billion for national defense. For those of you that argue military spending benefits science in general - while that may be - would not the benefit be felt more directly by increasing the $20 billion currently budgeted for general science, space, and technology?
Consider...
The U.S. is actively engaged in mediating the Middle East peace process, yet we consistently aid Israel militarily. Even though the Israeli military has been repeatedly criticized by the State Department for "an excessive use of force against relatively lightly armed opponents"*, the U.S. seems eager to approve the sale of 9 Apache AH-64D Longbow attack helicopters.
"Human rights groups and the the U.S. State Department have documented Turkey's use of U.S.-origin attack helicopters in violation of international humanitarian and human rights law"*, yet we are currently considering the sale of 145 Bell Textron AH-1Z KingCobra attack helicopters.
While our military aid to Columbia has done little but promote violence, the U.S. has approved another $850 million in military training and equipment for fiscal years 2000 and 2001.*
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* Source: Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org)