Opinion pieces

Armaments for Sale

George Browning

Armament manufacturers have made great profit for themselves and their share holders through the devastating conflicts in the Middle East. Military ties between the US and Saudi Arabia are well known and yet Saudi Arabia is not called to account for the contribution (moral and military) that it has given to Sunni inspired terrorism in the Middle East and throughout the world. 

Push to ban weapons advertising at Canberra Airport

Sue Wareham

Just who is being persuaded to buy big-ticket military items? As the vast majority of us are guaranteed not in that market, the message appears to be that spending huge amounts of our taxes on weapons is good for us; they deter war and provide "security". But do they? Did all those Dreadnoughts before World War I bring peace and security, or simply help fuel a global conflagration?

Driving a tank through airport’s advertising defence

David Stephens and Peter Tait

Relentlessly advertising the machinery of war in public places normalises war and conflict, making it seem part of our lives – like motor cars, white goods, holidays at Noosa, or any other advertised product. The use of weapons by nation against nation should be the last, worst option, not an everyday sight.

Welcome to armament city

Joan Beaumont

[The weapons advertisements] do not shape the prolonged defence procurement decision-making processes of the national government, unless our politicians are unduly subject to subliminal influences. But they do reinforce the public message that war and the expanding national security state is part of our national landscape – normal, unobjectionable and beyond critique.