![[Gun View Photograph]](gun_view.jpg)
One of the University of Vermont's largest investments is in General Dynamics (over $ 1,000,000 worth as of September 30, 2000). This corporation's only products are weapons and the systems that guide those weapons' ammunition to their targets. Some of this material is made in its plant in the southern end of Burlington. Originally, this plant was owned and managed by General Electric. In 1992 it changed hands to Martin-Marietta after a Wall Street deal was made with General Electric. Since then, the Lockheed logo has been added to the mix, as well. No matter which master of war has their name attached to it, however, the business inside continues. That business is the manufacture of some of the most inhumane weaponry known to humanity--no small feat in today's world of weaponry. In a 1998 speech to the Washington Economic Club, the company's current president attacked those who desire a peace dividend and called for increased weapons spending. In short, this company and its executive board are unrepentant merchants of death.
Perhaps General Dynamics' most (in)famous product is what is currently known among arms purchasers as the Vulcan armament system. This system is currently used on the United States Air Force's F-16, F-16, and F-18 fighter bombers and (as the company's web page puts it) "features a 20-mm Gatling gun which provides reliability up to ten times greater than single barrel guns. The system's M61AI Gatling fires at 6,000 shots per minute and places a controlled dispersion of projectiles in the path of the target." If one has never seen footage of what 6,000 shots per minute can do to a person, think of what your dog would look like if you placed a dynamite stick in its mouth. Hopefully that's graphic enough to give the reader an idea. The prototype of this system was the Gatling gun, which was first used by Union troops during the Civil war. That earlier version was capable of firing a couple hundred shots per minute (with less accuracy) and, once the Union troops figured out how to use it without injuring themselves, gave a clear advantage to their side in those battles where the Gatling was present. The concept was modernized in 1946 and has been continually modified to enhance its killing power. It was used by U.S. troops in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Yugoslavia. Its cousin, currently catalogued as the RAH-66, which is designed for use on helicopter warships, also raked the killing fields in Vietnam and Iraq and was destined for use during the war'against Yugoslavia this past spring, until NATO decided against the use of helicopters. Both are mounted on helicopters and ground vehicles given to Israel and other U.S. allies. In addition, at least one of these guns, if not both, is the gun mounted on the helicopters recently sent to the Colombian military to help them fight the antigovernment forces in that country.
This escalation of the war in Colombia is opposed by most other governments in the region and is likely to change what could have been a negotiated settlement into all-out war. Of course, if all-out war is what it takes for the United States to protect the oil claims by BP-Amoco and Occidental Petroleum in Colombia's jungles, then all-out war will be what the United States instigates. UVM students and others interested in justice and peace should oppose the growing U.S. involvement in Colombia's civil war and General Dynamics' continued profiteering from the economy of war and demand that UVM divest itself immediately of this and other stock (Dow Chemical, General Electric, Lockheed Martin) that profits from the economy of war.
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