The current virus pandemic should revive the 'guns or butter' debate summarized in this short version of “Weapons don't fight pandemics,” (Opinion by Miodrag Soric, Deutsche Welle, April 26, 2020) enhanced with political cartoons and links.
The COVID-19 pandemic shows that ... Virus outbreaks ... cannot be contained by military force. Time for a security rethink, ...
... The ... corona virus pandemic shows how ... badly, different states are ... prepared ...
... since 2003, we have witnessed the SARS, swine flu, MERS, Ebola and Zika virus outbreaks. Governments ... had ample time to prepare ... for a potential disaster ...
Mighty armies, underfunded health care systems
Tanks, fighter planes and aircraft carriers — where many crew members have fallen ill with the coronavirus — are useless against a pandemic. ...
... US President and Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, ... in 1953, ... said:
... the Twin Tower attacks [9-11, New York City] ... seem ... trivial compared to the ... [tens of thousands] ... dying from COVID-19 ....
... the US and other nations have failed to recognize the biggest threats to our safety: pandemics, climate change and environmental destruction.
Leaders have underestimated those threats and ... [possible] ... food riots, especially in Africa and parts of Asia.
Isolationism, protectionism won't help
... viruses and climate change don't care for national borders. ... ultimately forcing people into poverty.
... the global community must cooperate. ... rich countries in the global North, chiefly the US, must take leadership and show they have learned from past mistakes. Only then can our world become a safer place for all.
We hope that the 'Defence and Security' industries planning the CANSEC 2021 will shift to virus defence, health security, food and water security, and the prevention of wars. 'Scientists To Stop CoVid-19' was just proposed by 12 non-military USA citizens. Governments need to work now towards the creation of a world without wars.
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| Corona and Goliath, by Tom Janssen (Image 236189), Caglecartoons.com, The Netherlands, March 13, 2020. |
The COVID-19 pandemic shows that ... Virus outbreaks ... cannot be contained by military force. Time for a security rethink, ...
... The ... corona virus pandemic shows how ... badly, different states are ... prepared ...
 |
| America Unprepared for Virus, by Matt Wuerker, Politico, March 4, 2020. |
... since 2003, we have witnessed the SARS, swine flu, MERS, Ebola and Zika virus outbreaks. Governments ... had ample time to prepare ... for a potential disaster ...
Mighty armies, underfunded health care systems
Tanks, fighter planes and aircraft carriers — where many crew members have fallen ill with the coronavirus — are useless against a pandemic. ...
 |
| Worse than the war machine, by Joel Pett (Image 182503), LexingtonHerald-Leader, Kentucky, March 31, 2020. |
... US President and Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, ... in 1953, ... said:
'Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.* This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.'
* 63 years later: 'Just 10 percent of world military spending could knock off poverty', by Belinda Goldsmith, Reuters, April 4, 2016.
... the Twin Tower attacks [9-11, New York City] ... seem ... trivial compared to the ... [tens of thousands] ... dying from COVID-19 ....
... the US and other nations have failed to recognize the biggest threats to our safety: pandemics, climate change and environmental destruction.
 |
| Occupation in the time of Corona: How to protect yourself from the Military, by Mir Suhail, 12 Mar 2020. — Artist illustrated himself. |
Leaders have underestimated those threats and ... [possible] ... food riots, especially in Africa and parts of Asia.
Isolationism, protectionism won't help
... viruses and climate change don't care for national borders. ... ultimately forcing people into poverty.
 |
| WW3 is cancelled, but you get hit with corona virus, Tom and Jerry Starecat meme. |
... the global community must cooperate. ... rich countries in the global North, chiefly the US, must take leadership and show they have learned from past mistakes. Only then can our world become a safer place for all.
We hope that the 'Defence and Security' industries planning the CANSEC 2021 will shift to virus defence, health security, food and water security, and the prevention of wars. 'Scientists To Stop CoVid-19' was just proposed by 12 non-military USA citizens. Governments need to work now towards the creation of a world without wars.
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