Technology and the Projection of Power

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In my previous post, I remarked that, with the exception of the neutron bomb, I knew of no weapon ever invented that hasn’t been used. I realize now that I spoke incorrectly. At the time, U.S. forces had not yet used the massive ordnance penetrators, also known as “bunker busters.” Reportedly, these bombs were used operationally for the first time this past Saturday on some of Iran’s most fortified nuclear development facilities.

For many Americans, no doubt, the success of critically crippling Iran’s nuclear program will be seen as a source of great pride. Indeed, it was an awesome logistical operation spanning continents and time zones, coordinating some 125 aircraft in order to project this fearsome firepower to the other side of the world, and apparently without a single loss of American life.


B-2 bomber being refueled in midair


Let’s put things in perspective, though. While the success of this operation proves the vast technological superiority of the United States military, it in no way speaks to the morality, justness, or righteousness of this action. The success of this operation says nothing about whether the world is now a safer place or whether peace is more likely to prevail. All that has been proven (once again) is that the side that is the most technologically advanced generally wins.

But how, exactly, did we become the nation with the most advanced weaponry ever devised at its disposal? We are a colonial power. This nation was built by extracting labor and resources from regions with less technological prowess. Ours is a capitalist economy. The labor of the masses, whether enslaved or “free” has been used to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few. “Guns or butter” is an economic maxim that conveys the hard choice nations make between the ability to nurture and the ability to wage war. Rather than being used to fund programs that improve the wellbeing of all Americans and the larger world, our tax dollars have inordinately been used to create the most powerful military in the world.

Many believe that our advanced technology is an outgrowth of our superior intellect and social structure. Does this not prove the merit of our claim to this place at the pinnacle of the world’s hierarchy? Has God not blessed us with this wealth and intellect? Is this not an indication of our righteousness? Let me respond with a story.

I was leaving the recent No Kings protest carrying my pithy sign and draped in the U.S. flag. Oh, the irony! Two adult men and two boys were walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the street. “Faggot!” the largest one called out to me, to which I responded: “Wow, you’re really teaching your kids well.” Then, as I crossed over to where my car was parked, I saw that the one who’d called me a gay slur was carrying a sidearm.

Was he more righteous than I because he could project deadly power? Is he more blessed? Is his firepower making the world a better place? Are we safer?

It is safe, I think, to intuit that the first weapons of war were the very tools used to hunt game and till the earth. When war broke out, the hunters and farmers would take with them the tools they had at hand. Then, as technology advanced and labor became more specialized, there were those who could beat ploughshares into swords and vice versa. From that point on, the technological competition was on.

Are we really to judge the merits of a society or the righteousness of its mission by how cleverly it devises extractive mechanisms that make wealth available to invent and construct newer, deadlier, and more powerful weaponry? Is raw power and the ability to project it to the other side of the world with impunity really the measure of how advanced a society is? We might have destroyed Iran’s ability to construct a nuclear weapon, but a truly meaningful measure of the morality, justness, and righteousness of a superpower in this day and age is how successfully it can lead others to the creation of a world without the need for such destructive firepower that enslaves everyone with fear.


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This post is in the Power, Practice, and Peace series.

Find a running list of all posts in this series by clicking here.

 

Images

Refueling of a B-2 Bomber by Senior Airman Keith James via:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2nd_Air_Refueling_Squadron_refuels_B-2%27s_161110-F-GV347-141.jpg

 

Copyright 2025 by Mark Robert Frank

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