“The easy movement of high ranking military officers into jobs with major defense contractors and the reverse movement of top executives in major defense contractors into high Pentagon jobs is solid evidence of the military industrial-complex in operation.”
I was utterly stunned when I read these words of former Wisconsin senator William Proxmire, quoted in an essay by William Hartung, not because of the point he was making — like, what else is new? — but because he said them in . . . 1969.
.
Oh my God, 50 years ago!
This is basically the span of my adulthood. I was so young and revved up in 1969 — a hippie and idealist, a true believer in social change.
Out-of-Control Military Spending Since Eisenhower’s Presidency May be the Primary Reason Why the US National Debt is $23,000,000,000,000 (23 trillion) and Counting.
With an unprecedented number of children affected by the Ebola virus outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday [30 July 2019] said it would need to triple its budget to tackle the complex crisis, which included intensifying the overall public health response and launching measles vaccinations.
UNICEF/Hubbard | On 6 December 2018, at a UNICEF supported crèche in Beni, in the eastern DRC, Kavira Langa Jemima, an Ebola survivor, bathes 6 month old Josue, who’s mother is undergoing treatment for Ebola.
Bombing and shelling in Syria for more than 90 days by the Government and Russia have led to “carnage in the so-called de-escalation zone” of Idlib, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Tuesday [30 July 2019], in his seventh update since the “current onslaught” began.
A new UN report has found that 2018 was the worst year on record for children caught up in armed conflict; the year saw the highest numbers killed or maimed since the United Nations began monitoring the violation.
UNMISS/Isaac Billy | Former child soldiers are released in Yambio in South Sudan in February 2018.
Luiza Karimova. Photo: UN Women Europe and Central Asia/Rena Effendi Luiza Karimova. Photo: UN Women/Rena Effendi.
29 July 2019 (UN Women)* — Across the world, millions of women and girls live in the long shadows of human trafficking. Whether ensnared by force, coercion, or deception, they live in limbo, in fear, in pain.
Fighting in Libya “shows no signs of abating”, the head of the United Nations Support Mission (UNSMIL), told the Security Council on Monday [29 July 2019], painting a grim picture of worsening humanitarian conditions, and warning that the instability and influx of foreign weapons is fueling a proxy war in the north African country.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | Ghassan Salamé, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), briefs Security Council.
29 July 2019 (Wall Street International)* — The words that come to mind the most are astonishment and perplexity.
The Brazilian government has slipped into the abyss of absurdity, into an absolute trivialization of abuse and aggression, into a gross violation of the most basic rules of democratic coexistence – not to mention the law and the Constitution –, while spewing hatred and negativity as its sole political weapon.
In the wake of the murder of indigenous leader Emrya Wajãpi in Brazil, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has called on the country’s authorities to “react quickly and decisively” to protect the rights of indigenous peoples on their lands.
Rede de Cooperação Amazônica (RCA) | Wajãpi people, in Amapá, Brazil
Emrya Wajãpi was killed on July 23 in Amapá, a region in the far north of Brazil, bordering French Guyana.
According to media reports, witnesses saw a number of gold miners enter the protected reserve of the Wajãpi community, then stab their leader to death.
I was utterly stunned when I read these words of former Wisconsin senator William Proxmire, quoted in an essay by William Hartung, not because of the point he was making — like, what else is new? — but because he said them in . . . 1969.
