A Great Irony

In a civil society, we brand murder and manslaughter as crimes. We have decided that the act of taking another person's life -- with a few exceptions -- means that the guilty will be punished by society and this often equates into losing one's freedom by being locked away in jail or prison.

The purpose of legal imprisonment is twofold. Part of it is to avenge the death of the victim. The other is the hope of rehabilitating the convicted so that the individual can become a productive member of society whether in jail, for a life term, or paroled back into society at some point.

Consequently, an article posted on AlterNet 2 weeks ago serves up a great irony.

It is a little known fact of the attack on Libya that some of the components of the cruise missiles being launched into the country mayl have been made by prisoners in the United States. According to its website, UNICOR, which is the organization that represents Federal Prison Industries, “supplies numerous electronic components and service for guided missiles, including the Patriot Advanced Capability Missile (PAC-3)”.

In addition to constructing electronic components for missiles, prison labor in the United States is used to make electronic cables for defense items like “the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing (BA) F-15, the General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin F-16, Bell/Textron’s (TXT) Cobra helicopter, as well as electro-optical equipment for the BAE Systems..."

So, here is where we find ourselves. Some of the people incarcerated for murder are building military components that are used to kill people! When these folks decided to kill others on their own, society told them their actions were wrong. But when the government deems the killing of others as warranted, society tells them their actions are moral.

Is this an absolutely crazy world or what!!