Tomgram: Nick Turse, If You Build It, They Will Kill

There's that classic line of career advice to the confused young hero of the 1967 film The Graduate: "I want to say one word to you. Just one word… plastics." With the perspective of a few extra decades under our belts (or beltways), that word probably should have been "arms." After all, what a couple of weeks it's been for Washington's war industries: The Pentagon announced the resumption of military aid to Guatemala after fifteen years (can weapons be far behind?) as well as, after another fifteen year hiatus, the prospective sale of a first batch of F-16s -- the latest version of the plane and a lovely big-ticket item evidently capable of carrying nuclear weapons India-wards -- to the Pakistanis in appreciation for their help in the borderlands (thanks, thanks, for the memories…). It also released a major document, the National Defense Strategy, pledging us to war, war, war till hell freezes over and, both in the document and elsewhere, signaling a new push for the militarization of space, guaranteed to enable "us to project power anywhere in the world from secure bases of operation." (If you launch it, can the biggest ticket weapons be far behind?)