American Science: Addicted to Pentagon Cash?

An anonymous submitter writes: "In totalitarian states the military can compel scientists to perform research for weapons systems. That's not true in the United States, yet American scientists who refuse military work are exceedingly rare today. This may be in part because scientists, like most other citizens, agree that the U.S. is facing dangerous foes. But some dissidents argue the cause is more likely that Pentagon cash has become an addiction that scientists rationalize by working on 'dual use' technologies -- radar that maps planets and guides missiles; robots that peer through smoke in apartment fires to rescue victims, and through battlefield smoke to find human targets."

not that I usually leap to defences...

[ink_polaroid]

It's ironic that the usual opt-out clause for American universities who don't want to participate in morally bankrupt government research is that they wish to protect their academic staff's right to publish freely. (Which is intself an important concern, but still... they're shutting themselves out from multi-million dollar contracts on the basis of ethics, which should be applauded.)

Berkeley, for instance, maintains very strict standards [berkeley.edu] about the kind of research it will and won't get involved in.

Re:I don't understand the problem?

[stratjakt]

Look at how far the military has advanced technology. Look at airplanes of WWI vs WWII vs today, both commercial and military. Look at computers. Silly putty was developed under a defense contract, the guy was trying to find a synthetic rubber due to the shortage!

"Dual use" is another buzzword that's supposed to convey something sinister. Virtually anything can be considered "dual use".

bo o o o o gus!

[BWJones]

That's not true in the United States, yet American scientists who refuse military work are exceedingly rare today.

Look, there are all sorts of issues involved with performing military and defense research, particularly if it is classifed. I've had more than one resume come across my desk where the Ph.D. has a blank space for a couple of years or more on their CV. If you perform classified work, it tends to lock one into industry as these are periods where you often cannot publish in the peer reviewed journals.

God help you if you are interested in an academic career and say.....invest yourself in doing sleep research and find out how to induce sleep remotely via say trans-cranial stimulation. Stuff like this, particularly projects that apply to non-lethal weapon systems are hot right now.

Nice Article

[vandan]

I assume most people will disagree with it, but ... well done whoever posted it.

A question which comes to mind after reading this is:

Why is it illegal for North Korea or Iraq to supposedly have a nuclear / chemical weapons program, when US-Israel have the most enthusiastic nuclear & chemical weapons programs on Earth with full, offical government funding, and no-one bats an eyelid?

I know the answer that the right-wing will produce: that the US-Israel program is for defense only - to protect the innocents of the world, whereas the Iraqi / North Korean programs are clearly for TERRORISM and must be halted at all costs. There are some problems with their arguments, including:

1) Iraq didn't actually have any of the weapons they were accused of having

2) The people most likely to use their WOMD for terrorism are the US-Israeli people. Considering they have the largest stockpiles of WOMD on Earth, all other countries would be foolish to challenge them. Therefore the argument that the stockpiles are for defense seems to be quite a stretch of the truth, especially in light of recent history ( and not-so-recent history in Israel's case ).

Re:Nice Article

[vondo]

Why is it illegal for North Korea or Iraq to supposedly have a nuclear / chemical weapons program, when US-Israel have the most enthusiastic nuclear & chemical weapons programs on Earth with full, offical government funding, and no-one bats an eyelid?

Simple. Both Iraq and North Korea have signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. The USA has also signed, which binds it to make progress towards giving up nuclear weapons on an unspecified time table.

Israel, India, Pakistan, and some other countries have not signed.

So as a matter of International law, Iraq's nuclear program (which they did have in the past) and North Korea's were illegal. I believe NK has since withdrawn from the NNPT. There is a timetable for doing that, so I don't know if, by continuing to develop nuclear weapons, they are still in violation.

The people most likely to use their WOMD for terrorism are the US-Israeli people.

That'll be a surprise to those attacked on the Tokyo subway with sarin. (We've already seen terrorists use chemical weapons).

Re:40 Years Ago

[PureFiction]

Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad. ...

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.


I bet he is rolling in his grave... [ emphasis mine ]

Re:Keep one thing in mind.

[JoeBuck]

Actually, radio played a huge role in the Rwanda genocide, with many talk radio broadcasters not only urging that people be killed, but telling people where and when to meet, and where large groups of refugees were hiding.

Re:So...what so bad about it?

[Augusto]

This QuickVote is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those Internet users who have chosen to participate. The results cannot be assumed to represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. The QuickVote sponsor is not responsible for content, functionality or the opinions expressed therein.

America's economy is dependent upon the Pentagon!

[Incognitius]

The whole of America's economy is dependent upon the military. Noam Chomsky has a theory for this, called the "Pentagon System," and I can't believe no one here has mentioned it. A basic economics class will discuss this top-down military-generated economic growth.

Chomsky best explains this system in Understanding Power, but here's an excerpt from a speech he conducted with Corporate Watch:

After the Second World War, it was well understood in the business world that they were going to have to have state coordination, subsidy, and a kind of socialization of costs and risks. The only question was how to do that. The method that was hit upon pretty quickly was the "Pentagon system" (including the DOE, AEC, NASA). These publicly-subsidized systems have been the core of the dynamic sectors of the American economy ever since (much the same is true of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, etc., relying on different public sources). And that certainly leads right to Microsoft. So how does Microsoft achieve its enormous profits? Well, Bill Gates is pretty frank about it. He says they do it by "embracing and extending" the ideas of others. They're based on computers, for example. Computers were created at public expense and public initiative. In the 1950s when they were being developed, it was about 100% public expense. The same is true of the Internet. The ideas, the initiatives, the software, the hardware -- these were created for about 30 years at public initiative and expense, and it's just now being handed over to guys like Bill Gates.

http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/interviews/9805-micros oft.html

It's just another example of corporate welfare, and our entire country is dependent upon it. Don't fool yourselves with this "free-market" rhetoric/ Milton-Freedman-University-of-Chicago bullshit.

Re:So...what so bad about it?

[john82]

I'm sorry, come again? HP and Sony don't perform R&D? You're myopic, right?

Dell may just be a product shop turning out commondities, but I think you're way off base about HP and Sony. Either that or these links [sony.co.jp] are just [sony.net] a figment [sony-bplabs.com] of my imagination. [hp.com]

Re:So...what so bad about it?

[anthony_dipierro]

How does the alarm system in home x tell the monitoring station in city y that the house is on fire, and then how do you think the monitoring station in city y alerts the fire department in city x that house x is on fire?

The alarm system tells the monitoring station through an alarm circuit (essentially a telephone line), and the monitoring station then contacts dispatch through a telephone line, and dispatch then alerts the fire department through radio communications. That's how it works where I live, any.

Re:So...what so bad about it?

[EzInKy]

This is wonderful if you believe in the absolute goodness of the US. You can say god blesses us all you want, but the proof is in the pudding. Look at all the wars in the last century, and who benefited from them. We benefited by being able to drive our SUV's around longer, but the people we "liberated," or saved from communism (if still alive) didn't benefit much. The rich became richer, and so on.

List of some countries saved from Communism:

Poland
Hungary
Germany
Bulgaria
Latvia
Lithuania
Estonia
Albania
Serbia
Croatia
S. Korea
etc...

Shall I go on? Yes the Cold War like all wars was ugly and there were many casualities around the world, but I'll wager the people in these and many other countries feel they have benefited from being saved from communism.