[Peace-discuss] Column in Daily Illini - Engineering Expo

[David Green]

Welcome death merchants

Adam Zmick  
Have you ever wanted to make a living bringing death
and misery to people all over the world? If so, your
chance is here. 

This week's Engineering Expo brings numerous
opportunities to profit at the expense of others. And
a multifarious horde of job-hungry engineers will
flood the Illini Union in order to shake the hands of
their bloodsucking future employers.

If I had to choose the worst corporate murderer from
those in attendance this week, I would have to pick
Halliburton. For decades, they have been raking in
millions of dollars through their oil and military
contracts with Indonesia, Iran, and Nigeria, despite a
U.S. ban against these "terrorist nations." In 1995,
they pleaded guilty to selling six triggers for
nuclear weapons to the dictator of Libya.

In 2001, when Cheney was still CEO and Saddam Hussein
was still in power, Halliburton maintained contracts
to work on the oil infrastructure in Iraq. Less than
two years after finishing their work for Saddam,
Halliburton is back. This time, American taxpayers are
footing the bill.

Lockheed Martin was also invited to employ our
University's best and brightest. While Lockheed also
makes commercial aircraft, their main source of income
comes from the sale of high-tech weaponry. With
exciting names like "Nighthawk," "Python," and
"Starstreak," Lockheed will draw out the video gaming
nerds who will never see the singed corpses these
weapons create. Lockheed's products have been used in
many, if not all, of the 11 nations that have felt
American wrath in the short time I have been on this
Earth. (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada, Lebanon,
Libya, Panama, Somalia, Sudan, Serbia, Afghanistan,
and Iraq.)

However, the fear of an outbreak of peace has caused
Lockheed to diversify. By privatizing welfare, these
goons are now profiteering from poverty as well as
war. By claiming that they can write checks more
efficiently than the government, Lockheed has
convinced local, state and federal governments to
allow them to dole out the money meant for America's
needy. By giving smaller benefits to fewer people,
Lockheed Martin has found another way to steal a few
(million) bucks.

For those who don't know how to build weapons, but
still want to profit from death and destruction,
ExxonMobil will also be accepting resumes. While they
are still fighting to avoid paying for the Valdez
disaster, this petroleum powerhouse has turned its eye
to the last slivers of nature that have not yet been
raped by man, including the Alaskan National Wildlife
Reserve. Their human rights record is also appalling.
Just recently, they allowed their facilities to be
used for torture in Indonesia and forcibly moved a
village full of Columbians in order to expand South
America's largest coal mine. For the alcoholics that
stumble their way into the Expo, I hear they've got
some openings for oil tanker captains, too.

Monsanto, Raytheon, ConAgra, General Electric and
others have been asked to come here and take
apprentices as they see fit. Each of these has been
making millions at our expense. I can only hope that
an engineering education makes University students
smart enough ask the right questions before they sell
themselves out.


Adam Zmick is a junior in engineering. He doesn't plan
on getting an internship at the Expo. He can be
reached at opinions at dailyillini.com.



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