NON-LETHAL WEAPONS FOR PEACE CAMPAIGN

Australian budget cuts in lethal weapons

It’s budget time in Australia. In order to bring in a budget surplus, the Australian Government has cut defence spending. Fortunately the cuts are in the same old destructive lethal weapons. Ironically, Australia's security in the region has probably been enhanced as a result.

When are the nations of the world going to start investing in sensible non-destructive technology for maintaining world peace? (see similar comment at www.nonlethalweaponscampaign.com )

Australian budget cuts in lethal weapons

It’s budget time in Australia. In order to bring in a budget surplus, the Australian Government has cut defence spending. Fortunately the cuts are in the same old dstructive lethal weapons. Ironically, Australia's security in the region has probably been enhanced as a result.

When are the nations of the world going to start investing in sensible non-destructive technology for maintaining world peace? (see similar comment at www.nonlethalweaponscampaign.com )

Syrian Sorrows

There is much death and pain in Syria at present. First of all the shelling of civilians. The Syrian army has been firing high explosive shells at the country's own citizens. Men, women and children are being blown apart, hit by shrapnel or buried under rubble.

We are also seeing increasing evidence of torture. 'Security' forces are not hiding this. They have recorded scores of 'trophy videos' of themselves savagely beating their captives. Young children have been among the victims. See Syria Exposed the Channel 4 program broadcast on ABC TV Four Corners on 20 February 2012.

How would a non-lethal weapons approach reduce these activities?

First of all, lethal shells would not be used in civil conflicts.

Secondly, soldiers armed with non-lethal weapons might be less acculturated to violence and less prone to torturing their fellow citizens (and one might hope - other prisoners). (We can't be certain of this, but it seems likely and would be an added benefit to a NLW approach to conflict.)

Armed Violence - the Global Burden

The 2011 report on armed violence around the world - Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011 - is now available. This makes for fascinating and thought-provoking reading. Some half a million people are killed each year as a result of lethal violence. Interestingly only about 55,000 die in direct conflict (war and terrorism). The majority (some 396,000) die from intentional homicide. Firearms play an important role in lethal violence as does poverty.

There are a number of other factors revealed in the study, with a good overview in the executive summary. The findings are highly relevant to non-lethal weapons issues.

Armed Violence - the Global Burden

The 2011 report on armed violence around the world - Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011 - is now available. This makes for fascinating and thought provoking reading. Some half a million people are killed each year as a result of lethal violence. Interestingly only about 55,000 die in direct conflict (war and terrorism). The majority (some 396,000) are die from intentional homicide. Firearms play an important role in lethal violence as does poverty.

There are a number of other factors revealed in the study with a good overview in the executive summary. The findings are highly relevant to tnon-lethal weapons issues.

Armed Violence - the Global Burden

The 2011 report on armed violence around the world - Global Burden of Armed Violence 2011 - is now available. This makes for fascinating and thought provoking reading. Some half a million people are killed each year as a result of lethal violence. Interestingly only about 55,000 die in direct conflict (war and terrorism). The majority (some 396,000) are die from intentional homicide. Firearms play an important role in lethal violence as does poverty.

There are a number of other factors revealed in the study with a good overview in the executive summary. The findings are highly relevant to tnon-lethal weapons issues.

Greetings for 2012! A good year to promote non-lethal drones

New Year Greetings for 2012!

It's been a little while since our previous post. Most of the energy has gone into building up the Non-Lethal Weapons for Peace Campaign restructured website. If you haven't looked at it for a while, go to www.nonlethalweaponscampaign.com  (or www.nonlethalweaponscampaign.org - this is an alternative address for the site, as is www.tamingwar.com - the original website) .

In the coming year it's planned that this blog and the website will work in partnership to promote the cause of non-lethal weapons.

There will be many challenging issues for world peace in this coming year - some no doubt will be suprises. We hope that they won't be too nasty.

Just one issue we can forsee is the proliferation of armed drones. Remote warfare with this technology has already raised some worrying issues. There has been significant killing of innocent civilians in addition to military injury and death, which up to now would have been termed illegal under international conventions. The US is now losing its monopoly on drones as the technology is taken up by nations around the world.

We're likely to see more and more of these tricky devices in our skies. Some will be large and some quite small and they won't all be friendly.

NLW technology could provide an answer. Drones armed with non-lethal weapons might still be problematic, but they would be hugely less worrying than the current trends we are seeing with lethal drones.

More US Troops for Australia

On his recent visit to Australia President Obama  and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that there would be an increased presence of US Troops in Northern Australia. This move can be interpreted as a signal to China that the West would be more assertive in the Pacific region.

If the troops were armed with non-lethal weapons this stance would be more acceptable. In many respects there should be no problem in China, the USA and Australia cooperating in maintaining the security of the region - for example in combating piracy. This depends though on an international culture which can approach security without employing lethal weapons technology.

Diggers shot by Afghan Trainee

Three Australian soldiers have just been shot and killed by an Afghan soldier they were training. The trainee was then shot by other soldiers.  What a tragedy and what a waste of life. We may never know quite why it happened, but there will be much grief over the four deaths.

If only they had all been armed with non-lethal weapons and training with them. We might have seen several  stunned and surprised soldiers and a trainee sent to the brig.

Afhanistan has a highly ingrained culture of guns but one day we might see NLWs there - even an NLW toting Taliban! (It sounds impossible, but revisit this space in a few years time...) Meanwhile our thoughts must be with all those involved in this sad incident.

Brain injury from bomb blast the 'signature wound'

Brain injury from bomb blast is the new signature injury from the Afghan wars.  Professor  Richard Tanter of the Nautilus Institute (reported today in Australian Broadcasting Corporation News) says that soldiers are surviving better with kevlar armour only to suffer frequent brain inury from the blast of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Says the professor:

"It's not just from Taliban IEDs, but it's actually from the much larger blast effects from allied bombs, for example American 2,000-pound bombs, which are principally, blast weapons not shrapnel type weapons."

Here's yet another indication that we need to think much more carefully about the technology we use in dealing with international conflict.

It's highly debatable whether foreign troops should still be in Afghanistan at all. Even if military intervention is justified, surely we should try to do it without damaging weaponry. It seems that some people (soldiers and civilians) may appear to survive a bomb blast - but then find that there was injury after all. 

More reasons to look towards non-lethal technology.