Why Do Governments Like Killing People?

They do ya know. Even Japan is now debating whether to change their constitution so they can kill people again.

At the talks beginning in Geneva today, the British government will fight attempts to ban cluster bombs.

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 7th November 2006

The central mystery of the modern state is this. The necessary resources, both economic and political, will always be found for the purpose of terminating life. The project of preserving it will always struggle. When did you last see a soldier shaking a tin for a new rifle? Or a sponsored marathon raising money for nuclear weapons? But we must beg and cajole each other for funds whenever a hospital wants a new dialysis machine. If the money and determination expended on waging war with Iraq had been used to tackle climate change, our carbon emissions would already be in freefall. If as much money were spent on foreign aid as on fighter planes, no one would ever go hungry.

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