Lockheed Martin’s ATHENA Can Destroy A Truck From A Mile Away … So Can A Barrett

Lockheed Martin’s Laser Weapon Destroyed A Truck From A Mile Away Within Seconds

 

 

 

 

 

” Lockheed Martin announced on Thursday that a prototype for a new laser weapon system had successfully destroyed the engine of a small truck “in a matter of seconds from more than a mile away.”

  The defense and aeronautics giant named the 30-kilowatt fiber laser weapon system ATHENA, an acronym for Advanced Test High Energy Asset.

  The field test demonstrated the laser’s military effectiveness against enemy ground vehicles, Lockheed stated, and demonstrated its “rapidly evolving precision capability” envisioned to “protect military forces and critical infrastructure.” “

 

 

     While we remain ambivalent in the debate over the necessity of spending billions in the development of these space age weapons , we recognize the fact that even if the US does not create these futuristic weapons China will .

    However , we must fault Lockheed Martin for their marketing strategy . 

   It hardly seems wise to advocate the multi-billion dollar ATHENA as a weapon to destroy trucks “from a mile away in seconds” when a single round from a Barrett M107 can accomplish the same result for a couple bucks .

While it is possible that the R&D costs can eventually be recouped and that the ATHENA system can become a cost-effective means of destroying missiles , jets and other large and expensive war machines , we find the emphasis placed on the destruction of regular trucks found throughout the articles currently proliferating on the web to be highly insulting to our intelligence .

 

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War On Terror , War On Drugs … What’s The Difference ? In A Word , Nothing

 OneTruth4Life

 

 

 

” By now you should know that the drug war was fabricated by the Elite and created a slave class that enriched corporations who construct and run prisons. Individual rights must be removed and accepted to advance to the next step.”

 

   

   Both of these trumped up “wars” serve two purposes , neither of which has to do with public safety . Number one , they serve to enrich the corporate sector cronies of Congress , who in turn funnel vast sums into the campaign war chests of the very pols writing the laws that enrich the corporations and number two , they serve as a “reasonable” pretext for an ever-widening campaign to spread the influence of the State over our daily lives . 

   Watch the video below for some facts about the “war on drugs” and the prison industrial complex .

 

 

 

”  The war on drugs has been going on for more than three decades. Today, nearly 500,000 Americans are imprisoned on drug charges. In 1980 the number was 50,000. Last year $40 billion in taxpayer dollars were spent in fighting the war on drugs.

  As a result of the incarceration obsession, the United States operates the largest prison system on the planet, and the U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska. Try to imagine the Drug Enforcement Administration erecting razor wire barricades around two states to control crime and you’ll get the picture.

  According to the U.S. Dept of Justice, the number of offenders under age 18 imprisoned for drug offenses increased twelvefold from 1985 to 1997. The group most affected by this propensity for incarceration is African-Americans. From 1985 to 1997, the percentage of African-American young people put in prison increased from 53 to 62 percent.

  Today, 89 percent of police departments have paramilitary units, and 46 percent have been trained by active duty armed forces. The most common use of paramilitary units is serving drug-related search warrants, which usually involve no-knock entries into private homes.”

 

 

    On the “war on terror” side of the equation , President Eisenhower foresaw the rise of corporate welfare and cronyism when in his farewell speech he coined the phrase “military industrial complex” . He may not have anticipated the rise of Statism that would accompany the ascendence of the Corporate/Congressional alliance but his warning was clear .

 

 

   When you combine the two with the State’s never-ending quest for more power the police state is the inevitable result , and here we are .

 

 

    And so with the aid of a media establishment that now amounts to little more than a Statist mouthpiece and a State monopoly on the education system the people have been conditioned to accept the lie that the State is the only thing standing between  their continued well-being and a world run amok by terrorists and criminal and they unfortunately lack the inquisitiveness to ask the obvious questions , like “Why?” .

   The notion of asking questions has been bred out of the American breed and the serfs are only too happy to buy some more s**t on credit , sit back and watch TV and take Leviathan’s word that this is all being done for “their own good” … to preserve the security of the State and it’s people while two centuries ago , back when critical thought was the norm , Benjamin Franklin warned :

” Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Illustration by Andy Singer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Why We Fight … It’s Not What You Think

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