Murder Machines

What is the ethical or moral difference between gassing someone in a war with a nerve agent or shooting them in the guts with a 5.56mm rifle round? Pain is subjective, cruelty is subjective. Is there in fact any morale difference to murder via neurological failure, or murder via gunshot wound? 

I don't believe in “weapons of mass destruction (WMDs),” or weapons deemed too cruel for use in warfare and it’s not because I think weapons like flamethrowers, landmines, napalm, and nerve agents are nice, or good. Far from it. Rather it is my opinion that war itself is inherently cruel and trying to mitigate this is simply a whitewashing to help us all sleep at night. Tools of war are tools, and the usage of these tools is what makes them immoral, rather than the specific mechanism that allows them to be tools of state-sponsored murder. The tools of war are of interest to me, not for their moral or ideological attributes, but as an academic interest. There is an exception however to this clinical or distanced view: the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. 

There have been some rumblings in the military and Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) communities of a new export version of the F-35, and that it is likely Canadian. This, coupled with the recent news that Canada will definitively not be purchasing new F-18 Super Hornets, makes it sure to me that Trudeau is about to break another of his campaign promises. So, let’s take a dive into the F-35, the most blatantly criminal killing machine in the world. 

The F-35 is a singular aircraft in the world today: stealth, supersonic, compact, expensive. It is a multipurpose fighter bomber, capable of placing a satellite-guided bomb on a 1m target from the high atmosphere. It has significant, newest generation air to air weapons, but these are in a secondary role for the F-35. The F-35 is, in fact, expressly designed to be a jack-of-all-trades fighter, a single aircraft for multiple export roles. So far, the F-35 has proven troublesome: several have crashed, firing the cannon can cause the frame to crack, and the price has ballooned out of reach of many of the nations who were intending to acquire it. 

The F-35 is more than a flawed fighter-bomber; it is a moral disaster of the highest order. This is due to the framework in which the F-35 has been created. Truly a Tower of Babel-esque multi-national, multi-mission design, the F-35 is a device expressly designed for the projection of Western Capitalist interests both by design and employment. Lockheed Martin is one of the most powerful weapons manufacturers on Earth, heavily subsidized by the US Government, and the go-to for American aerial weapons development. The grift started before the first metal was cut on the design. It cost millions just to buy into the project enough to have one’s own version, as then Prime Minister Stephen Harper did when he signed onto the plan. When Canada withdrew under Trudeau, we lost millions we had sunk into the cost with nothing to show for it. 

What do we need the F-35 for anyway you ask? To defend Canada says the Canadian government. Fine, I’m not against that, but who is the F-35 going to defend us from? Who knows? The Russians can’t invade Canada, and neither can the Chinese. If defense of Canada was ever a priority, we would have purchased a much more suitable weapon system, as the F-35 is a bad fit for this role. Air interception over the high Arctic requires long range flying, high speeds, and long beyond-visual-range (BVR) weapon systems. The F-35 does have these, but not close to the capabilities of other interceptors like the F-22 or the older F-14 Tomcat. The stealth characteristics are somewhat helpful for the role we wish to see it in, because being invisible on radar does give an air combat advantage. However, this is tempered by the fact that no Russian or Chinese fighter aircraft are capable of long-range intrusion into North American air space anyway. The interceptors protecting this area therefore have no need for stealth characteristics, no need for bombload, and would be employed against a threat that for all intents and purposes, has never existed. So, what is it for? 

Asymmetric war is a war of hearts and minds. The price tag in the Western aggressor nations is that of both weapons and lives, but only one of these metrics is an issue at home: body count. It’s bad for morale when one loses a jet with associated pilot. Case in point: the shootdowns of Russian strike aircraft in the Syrian War. One pilot was killed by ground fire after ejection, one killed himself and his assailants with a grenade rather than be taken alive. This makes sense given ISIS’ less than humane treatment of aviators, but it’s terrible for morale at home, and the Syrian War was indeed very unpopular in Russia. 

The F-35 is the American answer to this problem. The aircraft is capable of flying over, or around, most anti-aircraft weapon systems, and can strike with pinpoint accuracy outside of the majority of anti-aircraft system ranges. This has been amply demonstrated by the Israeli Air Force, which has been using the F-35 to strike targets in Syria and Lebanon with total impunity. This is the essence of the F-35: It is designed explicitly to hit a target that never knew it was there and wouldn’t have been able to stop it anyway. It is the ultimate expression of Western military doctrine: Forever War. 

War is an inherently and irredeemably violent and barbaric practice. Modern war doctrine is very much focused upon hiding that fact with cute Tik Tok videos, propaganda, and public affairs officers. We make reassuring statements about avoiding civilian casualties and bringing freedom, but these are nothing but a mask. The F-35 is the pointy end of our perpetual state of modern war in which we bomb with impunity those who have nothing with which to defend themselves. 

Want to see what the F-35 is truly for? Look at the burning ruins of Libya, look at the ongoing war crimes that are the Saudi and Israeli air campaigns in Palestine and Yemen respectively. Look at the American murder of an Afghan aid worker, his family, and many neighbours in Kabul this summer. The F-35 is the manned extension of the US Drone program, a program of assassination and murder that should comfortably leave every US President in charge of it in prison. 

Bombing people with impunity has always been a mission of the F-35, but the true mission of the F-35 has already been achieved! It is useless to Canada. The goal was to make other nations feel the need to buy into the American war machine and be happy for the privilege, while funneling billions to Lockheed Martin shareholders. This fighter plane grants Canadians, allies of the American Empire, the privilege to murder and debase ourselves in the eyes and lives of the world, just as the Americans have. 

Ian, Dec 30th, 2021