[Reader-list] The List by Geov Parrish

[Harsh Kapoor]

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0252/news-parrish.shtml

Seattle Weekly   December 25 - 31, 2002

The List

by Geov Parrish

I want a list.

I want a full accounting of every weapon in the country. Not Iraq. I could
give a fig about Iraq. It's dirt-poor, halfway around the world, almost
completely disarmed, has no way to attack us, and knows that any move to
threaten anyone would be instantly suicidal. America faces many threats.
Iraq is not one. Among all the American-trained dictators plaguing the
planet, Saddam is the least of our problems.

I want a list of our weapons.

After all, we pay for them--and pay and pay. And that was even before 9/11
and the giant sucking wound where the federal surplus once was. That money,
yours and mine, went almost entirely for yet more weapons and the capacity
to use them. I want an accounting.

It's the United States, after all, that poses a threat, not just to its
neighbors but countries anywhere in the world. Ask Iraq, Afghanistan,
Kosovo, Serbia, Pakistan, Sudan, Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, Panama, Libya, or
Grenada--all countries we've bombed or bullied in the past 20 years. It's
the United States whose foreign policy now officially reserves the right to
invade any place in the world for any reason or none at all. It's the United
States that sells weapons to one or more sides of virtually every one of the
five dozen or so wars now raging. It's America, with the oldest and biggest
nuclear weapons program in the world, the U.S. alone, that has proudly used
them. It's the United States that has shredded the world's arms-control
structure, the U.S. that breaks international treaties the way other
countries fund health care. Routinely.

OURS ARE THE WEAPONS of choice for everyone from psychotic serial killers to
jungle guerrillas to kleptocratic dictators the world round. Every American
embassy makes it a priority to pay for the marketing, credit underwriting,
and purchase of those weapons, and closes the deal. It's the U.S. that
underwrites and trains intelligence agencies and secret police the world
over, including any number of countries where state torture and murder are
the norm. We pay for it all. I want a list.

I want it in three weeks.

I want to know every single weapon or potential weapon possessed by the
United States. Not just the Pentagon. Every single agency, down to the Mint
and the Library of Congress. If the Library of Congress' assistant medical
archivist carries mace in her purse when she goes to the parking garage, I
want to know. I also want every potential weapon government employees
possess. Every firearm John Ashcroft and his NRA-loving appointees own, and
everyone else down to the grade C-3 summer interns. That includes dual-use
weapons, like nail files, or certain kitchen spices which, when mixed with a
nasal decongestant, can produce a splotchy red rash. I want the list. All of
it. No typos, please.

But that's not all. It's not just our government that poses a threat to the
world; corporate America does, too. If Coca-Cola doesn't constitute an
invading army, I don't know what does. Therefore, I also want all of the
weapons or potential weapons possessed by any entity that does business in
the United States. Whether or not Americans own it. Air Botswana, this means
you. That includes all employees and all subcontracting employees and
agencies. Like Coke's Ouagadougou bottling plant. Can't be too careful.

You've got three weeks. And it had better be complete. And indexed.

OF COURSE, I DOUBT you'll cooperate. The Pentagon alone doesn't know what
happened to billions of dollars. Accounting individually for every paper
clip--after all, they're pointy--seems unlikely. I expect many companies
won't fully cooperate, either.

They'll claim proprietary information or some other lame excuse.

Weasels.

We'll have to do inspections, of course. Unannounced, accompanied by a
battalion or two. When they object, we'll call it part of their sustained
pattern of noncooperation.

Have I mentioned that I retain the right to shoot down any aircraft that
appear over the skies of Kentucky, Ohio, or Indiana? They'll probably pitch
a fit about that, too.

But then, that's what you'd expect from people whose love of power is so
fierce that they'd willingly endanger their own people, right?

After all, by inspiring billions of people to loathe America, it's you and I
who are put at risk. We're the ones who'll walk past exploding hotels or
work in collapsing office towers. We're the collateral damage.

And we're paying for it, out of every paycheck. We pay for the carnage. Now
and later.

The least we can get is a list.

Three weeks.

gparrish at seattleweekly.com