This is YOUR War, Chicago! (Boeing F/A-18's Begin Strikes in Iraq)

I've noticed lately that every time there's some outrageous act of military violence -- current or threatened -- anywhere in the world, if you look a little closer, you see the Boeing Corporation.

Israel's massacre in Gaza? Boeing fighters-bombers and attack helicopters.

"Upgrade" for the B61 nuclear bomb? Boeing's enhanced tailfins.

Next generation killer drone? Boeing "Phantom Ray."

Now the United States has started dropping bombs in Iraq again, and look who's supplying the weapons:

F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to the “Tomcatters” of Strike Fighter
Squadron (VFA) 31, takes off from the flight deck of the aircraft carrier
USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). Source: Global Aviation Report

An AP report dated August 8 and updated at 10:49 a.m. stated: "U.S. fighter jets off the Norfolk-based USS George H.W. Bush dropped bombs on Islamic militants in Iraq Friday, the Pentagon said, carrying out President Barack Obama's promise of military force to counter the advancing militants and confront the threat they pose to Iraqi civilians and Americans still stationed there." ("F/A-18 jets off USS George H.W. Bush strike in Iraq" on WVEC.com website)

Here's how Wikipedia describes the F/A-18: "The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is a twin-engine supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole combat jet, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft (F/A designation for Fighter/Attack). Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and Marine Corps."

Oh, and here's an interesting footnote:

The U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, has used the Hornet since 1986.

Yes, those would be the same Blue Angels that millions of Chicagoans will "ooh" and "ahh" over on the lakefront during the 2014 Chicago Air and Water Show in just one week.

(More on Boeing F/A-18 Hornet.)

SO . . . pretty much anywhere in the world the U.S. or its proxies are raining down death and destruction, weapons made by Chicago-based Boeing Corporation.

People in Chicago like to walk down the street and look the other way, saying, "This doesn't have anything to do with me." When you ask them to take a flyer, or to learn more about this problem, they wave it away with a bland, "I'm good . . . ."

It's time for people in Chicago to realize that, no, these acts of violence have EVERYTHING to do with you -- at least as long as you live in Chicago, and bask in the benefits of our leading "corporate citizen."

You're "good"? You're not even close . . . .

Activists speaking against renewed U.S. attacks on Iraq
at a press conference in Federal Plaza, Chicago, August 8, 2014.
(front l-r) Andy Thayer, Newland Smith, Joe Scarry, Neal Resnikoff
More at "Anti War Protesters Get Their Message Out" (Chicago Sun-Times)

Related posts

July 2014 - Many organizations from across the city joined the call by Anti-War Committee – Chicago, Jews for Justice in Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and 8th Day Center for Justice: Protest Boeing Death Machines in Gaza: Demand Chicago Drop Boeing from Air and Water Show!

(See No Drones Illinois Endorses Call to Drop Boeing from Chicago Air and Water Show)

Now that the Israeli government's killings in Gaza are front-page news -- particularly the way military aircraft is being used to mow down innocent men, women, and children -- Boeing's involvement is in everyone's face.

(See Boeing Has an Israel Problem . . . and Chicago Has a Boeing Problem)

There's been a lot of talk in recent weeks and months about the problem of gun trafficking in Illinois, and how we will never meet our goal of stopping the violence in our communities if we can't stop the flow of guns. Maybe it's time for us to eat our own dog food . . . .

(See What If Illinois Became a "War-Profiteer-Free Zone"?