{"id":3217,"date":"2003-01-13T09:17:45","date_gmt":"2003-01-13T14:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=3217"},"modified":"2003-01-13T09:17:45","modified_gmt":"2003-01-13T14:17:45","slug":"steel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/01\/13\/steel.html","title":{"rendered":"Steel"},"content":{"rendered":"

I mentioned <\/a>a few weeks back how scrap steel from the WTC<\/a> is going to be used in the construction of a new amphibious assault ship, the USS New York, to be launched in 2007. I opined that it was a very clever idea, showing a fine sense of irony, a statement of strength in defiance of those who attacked us.<\/p>\n

Evidently<\/a>, though, some <\/a>folks <\/a>are crying foul over this, aghast that American war-mongering arrogance is beating plowshares into swords, building a new death machine out of the remains of a human tragedy.<\/p>\n

There is something fundamentally wrong about turning the ashes of murdered people into a warship. Making the building of that warship an $800 million dollar pork project for Trent Lott’s home town just compounds the indecency.<\/p>\n

Give me a frelling break.<\/p>\n

First of all, if someone wants to buy some of that scrap metal and use it to build a large peace memorial, more power to them. We can then debate over which use is most likely to avert war. <\/p>\n

Short of that, is it simply better that the metal be left to rust away, clogging a landfill? Or that it be used to build washing machines and automobiles? Do we need to certify that none of those washing machines are going to be put at military bases, or that none of the cars will be driven by employees of the Dept. of Defense, or other undesirables?<\/p>\n

Secondly, guessing games over what the dead of the WTC would have “wanted” to be done with the steel (as well as, hypothetically, some of their own organic matter) is useless. My guess that some of them would be pleased as punch that it would be put to such a use is as silly as others’ guesses that some of them would be aghast. For that matter, I suspect all of them have more important things to consider than what’s happening to their unrecovered earthly remains, and the remains of the building they died in.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there are some saner heads<\/a> commenting on this.<\/p>\n

I can’t help also be struck by the seeming presumption that, somehow, military hardware is singularly, inherently, evil, rather than mere inanimate object, able like any other to be used for good or ill, for the saving of lives or the unnecessary wasting of lives, unable to decide on its own, or take on any moral value of its own, but only a tool to be used at the choice of humans whose future actions we cannot predict and know not of. <\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I mentioned a few weeks back how scrap steel from the WTC is going to be used in the construction of a new amphibious assault ship, the USS New York,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-11","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3292,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/12\/30\/petards_part_ii.html","url_meta":{"origin":3217,"position":0},"title":"Petards, Part II","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Dec-02 9:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Scrap steel from the Twin Towers is going to be incorporated in the USS New York, an US Navy amphibious troop carrier being built. 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