FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q.How
can I get involved?
Q.It's not up to EDO how their
products are used. How can you call them war criminals?
Q.Okay, so EDO make components
which are used to bomb sites from military aircraft. So what?
Q.If EDO didn't make what they
do how would we defend ourselves?
Q.EDO provide employment in the
local community, do you want to see all those people unemployed?
How
can I get involved?
There are loads of things you
can do. You can check the diary page to
see any upcoming actions or events which take your fancy. You
can download a newsletter or other material from the resources
page to distribute to friends and workmates. Or you can organise
something yourself, if you have any ideas. And of course, feel
free to get in touch or donate!
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It's
not up to EDO how their products are used. How can you call them
war criminals?
It is true that EDO do not decide
how their products are used (although bomb-release mechanisms
aren't exactly versatile), but they do decide who to sell them
to. Bruno Tesch, a 1940s German industrialist found himself in
this position (1). His firm manufactured gas
for the extermination of vermin, which was lawful. But they also
sold it to the Nazi SS who used it in the gas chambers to exterminate
people. In his trial at Nuremberg, it was found that because Tesch
had a good idea of the criminal ends his products were put to,
he was guilty as an accessory. After 18 months of campaigning
the directors of EDO can be under no illusions about what their
products are being used for in Iraq and elsewhere, and therefore
they are complicit in war crimes (2). Back
to top
Okay,
so EDO make components which are used to bomb sites from military
aircraft. So what?
100,000 dead Iraqis (3).
The majority of those caused by the invaders' use of air strikes
(4). “The GBU-12 Paveway, laserguided
500-pound bomb was the most commonly used precision weapon in
the war. Some 7,114 were used” (5).
EDO are complicit in the thirty-three 9-11s suffered by the Iraqi
people since the invasion. It is only possible to say 'so what?'
if you believe that Iraqi lives are worth less than those of others.
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If EDO
didn't make what they do how would we defend ourselves?
According to the Ministry of
Defence “there is no longer a direct threat to Western
Europe or the United Kingdom” (6).
Therefore, “long range air attack” will be
used “as a coercive instrument to support political
objectives” (7). Paveway bombs
are not a defensive weapon, they a major part of the arsenal of
coercion (8). However much EDO's apologists
would like to call their trade in death 'the defence industry',
this is as euphemistic as calling thousands of dead civilians
'collateral damage'. Back to top
EDO
provide employment in the local community, do you want to see
all those people unemployed?
Heroin dealing, slave trading and running concentration
camps all provide employment - but do we support them? No, because
there are more important things than just work - the antisocial
effects or nature of that work. The arms industry as a whole
is subsidised by taxpayers to the tune of at least £8,500
per job per year (9)- compared up to £3000/year
on the dole (10). In other words, every
job in the arms trade costs about the same as three people on
the dole! EDO employ around 160 people at Emblem House, if it
was a straight choice between war crimes and jobs - how many
innocent lives is a job worth? Luckily for EDO, they also manufacture
relatively benign civilian products, which could continue to
provide employment whilst ending their support for war crimes.
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1
The Zyklon B Case at http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/zyklonb.htm
2 Eg.
see http://www.worldtribunal.org
3 Mortality
before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq: cluster sample survey,
The Lancet at http://www.smashedo.org.uk/resources/lancetreport
4 The
Lancet, op cit
5 'Conflict
in Iraq', Research Paper at http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2003/rp03-050.pdf
6 Strategic
Defence Review para 23 at http://www.mod.uk/issues/sdr/priorities.htm
7 Strategic
Defence Review para 87 at http://www.mod.uk/issues/sdr/future.htm
8 'Conflict
in Iraq', op cit
9 Subsidies
Factsheet, CAAT, available here
10 Current
maximum jobseekers' allowance, info here
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