Saturday 3 March 2012

One Hundred Cities Against the F-35s


Last Saturday in more than 100 Italian cities, there were protests against the F-35 joint strike fighters (JSF) and the choice of the Italian government to spend more than 10 billion Euro to manufacture and buy "just" 90 of them.

It's true that in the original purchase plan the number of F-35s was 131.

Do 90 war aircraft seem few for a country that "repudiates war"?

It will be a heap of money badly spent, because even one JSF is too many: : its cost is equal to the cost of 180 kindergartens.

And with the obvious increase in cost per aircraft, even with this cut we could be spending around 12 billion - not to speak of the operating and maintenance costs.

We don't want to end up like Greece. As reported in “Corriere della sera” on 13 February.

“The Greeks are starving but they have full arsenals. And they continue to buy weapons. This year they will burn three percent of their GDP in mililtary spending. But what is pushing Athens to throw away heaps of money? Fear of the Turks? No, its the greed of Merkel and Sarkozy. The two European leaders have had the Greek government with its back to the wall for months: if you want aid, if you want to stay in the Euro, you've got to buy our tanks and our lovely warships. The pressure from Berlin on the Greek government was denounced in recent days by the German press stunned by Merkel's cynicism in imposing cuts and sacrifices on Greek citizens and then attempting to benefit the German arms industry. ”


As for Italy, we ask ourselves:

Will the F-35 project create new jobs?

Few jobs will be created. Far fewer than those promised some time ago, and they will only serve to reduce the cuts in jobs at Alenia (a firm in the Finmeccanica group). So, they aren't really "new" jobs. This was acknowledged, not by pacifists or antimilitarists, but by General Debertolis (National director of armaments), as reported in the “Il Sole 24 ORE” ion 8 February.

What are they for? What wars is our country preparing for? Who are we going to bomb?

The F-35 will be needed to take part, with the US and other allies in military adventures. We're talking about war (let's call it by its name). Confirmations of this, though couched in diplomatic language , have been given by the current defence minister Admiral Di Paola.

The constitution prohibits Italy from making war: but with the excuse of humanitarian interventions, or of the membershop of NATO, or the defence of "our interests"... in the last 20 years we have taken part in 5 wars - without resolving any of the situations of injustice that were offered as the pretext - and causing death and destruction with our weapons.


As citizens, we have the right to education, work, pensions and healthcare.... we can do without 131 (or even 90!) F-35 JSF!