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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 6/28/16

Pentagon Research May Be Dangerous to Your Health

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The tax-eating Pentagon war machine may have something to do with America's mediocre showing on the list of the world's healthiest nations.

Not only are billions in U.S. taxes going down the drain to finance wars the public doesn't care about, (such as in Libya, for example,) but when the Pentagon gets 54 cents out of every discretionary tax dollar to make wars, the public is being cheated out of money that could be invested in medical research to extend human life.

According to the CIA's own "Factbook," the U.S. ranks 43rd in life expectancy on the list of nations at 78.74 years. That's just behind No. 42 Turks and Caicos Islands, at 79.69 years. FYI, Monaco ranks first at 89.52 years, followed by No. 2, Japan, at 84.74, and No. 3, Singapore, at 84.68.

Also ahead of America are No. 13, Australia, 82.15; No. 14, Italy, 82.12; No. 15, Sweden, 81.98; No. 18, Canada, 81.76; No. 19, France, 81.75; No. 20, Norway, 81.70; No. 30, Finland, 80.77; No. 32, Germany, 80.57; and No. 33, UK, 80.54.

A perennial killer of Americans is influenza, which claims about 36,000 lives annually, against which the U.S. spends about $250-300 million a year on research.

Much more important to President Obama, apparently, are deaths from biological warfare on which the U.S. spends about 10 times as much as on influenza. As germ warfare kills zero Americans each year, it raises the suspicions these dollars are going to advance the illegal, aggressive, germ warfare research the Pentagon is not advertising.

According to PBS, "Today"American scientists continue to conduct ongoing research on biological agents. Since 2001 the U.S. government has spent or allocated more than $50 billion to address the threat of biological weapons, including an effort to develop an even deadlier strain of the anthrax virus to test against current vaccines. Scientists are also working on vaccines against the smallpox virus, which has been eradicated worldwide since 1980."

PBS makes it sound as though Pentagon research is defensive by nature. If so, why is USG, (incredibly!) working to bring back smallpox if not for offensive use? As for anthrax, the last known user of this virus was someone inside the Pentagon's own Fort Detrick, Md., research center who mailed it out (Amerithrax) and killed five persons and infected 17 others to intensify the panic following 9/11.

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Sherwood Ross worked as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News and contributed a regular "Workplace" column for Reuters. He has contributed to national magazines and hosted a talk show on WOL, Washington, D.C. In the Sixties he was active as public (more...)
 
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