Squadron13 Newsletter - May 2, 2005 "Milestones"

Milestones  seem to be flying by with such an amazing speed lately that I can’t help but notice and reflect on them.
One of our biggest milestones starts today. It affects all of us in a big way . That is the re-signing of  the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It has been in place for over thirty years and has had a string of successes in limiting the spread of nuclear weapons including South Africa, Ukraine, South America and Libya. It has been called “one of the best bargains of the 20th century”. Today begins an attempt to renew in some form, for the first time, without the support of the U.S. In addition, we have begun planning new types of nuclear weapons which can only formally signal to the rest of the world that the nuclear arms race is now open to any and all comers.  A milestone for sure.
An informative article on this can be read at this link: http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0503/050312.htm
 

There couldn’t be a more appropriate time to note another milestone;  a new contributor at Squadron13.  Brian Bogart is a Peace Studies graduate from U of O, The very first one. He is also a member of the civil resistance group here in Eugene.  His first article at  Squadron13 is titled “The Pit and the Pentagon, the Internet, and the End Game”. His article is especially interesting to me because it refers to the internet, and what the Neo-cons want to do with it. In the past it has been easy to discount politicians who say they want to regulate and censure the internet, out-law spam and so on. The very nature of the internet makes that almost impossible. Or so I used to think.
The internet knows no boundaries, physical or political. You can transmit anything across the globe just as easily as you can across a room. If it can be digitized it can be sent via the internet, which means music, movies, pictures, interviews, reports, lectures, recipes, software, conversations, and more. With encryption and identity cloaking it can be perfectly anonymous too. And, for the most part it is free. It is an invention that will rank as one the most significant, if not the most significant of all time. Right up there with the wheel.  Instant communication, across the whole globe and complete freedom of speech. Is it any wonder that the Neo-cons would want to do away with it? Hardly.  I’ll let Brian explain:
Here is the link to Brian’s first article on Squadron13: http://www.squadron13.com/Peace/
 

Of much less importance and on a more personal level, I see I’ve had many of my own milestones in just the last few months. Too many to mention here, though I did  put up a new page devoted to tracking them if you are interested.
Here is the link to my Squadron13 Milestones:
http://www.squadron13.com/HQ/milestones.htm

Sincerely,
Gordon Sturrock
Flights of Thought on War and Politics...
Squadron13 Aviation Museum Eugene, Oregon, USA.

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