On September 10th and 11th The Halifax International Airshow will again host an impressive display of civilian and military aircraft. The bulk of the planes will be military, with ground displays of military vehicles and an army tactical display promised to be "more exciting and in your face".

There's an obvious point missing in all of the promotional material. The show dresses up the event as a family activity, but what's missing is that the planes are not fun and festive things. They have a terrible purpose. It's time to name airshows for what they are; displays of military might intended to desensitize us to the horrors of war, and to our involvement in the delivery of death and destruction through our government's military actions.

These aircraft on display for our enjoyment have been used to destroy both military and civilian infrastructure in Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq , Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Central and South America . Many innocent civilians were killed in these conflicts.

While we are encouraged to bring our kids to smile and laugh and look in awe at the planes, there is no mention of the kids in other countries who have cowered in shelters for weeks on end during terrorizing bombing, or have witnessed their towns and villages burning, or their families killed by them. War must not be viewed with light spirit.

For example in 1999 Canadian CF-188s conducted 10% of the NATO strike sorties in the former Yugoslavia. Canadian pilots flew 678 combat sorties, including 558 bombing strikes during 2,577 combat-flying hours. CF-18s dropped a total of 397 guided missiles and 171 free-fall bombs on a wide variety of targets including missile sites, airfields, bridges and fuel storage areas. Hundreds of civilians were killed by inaccurate or misguided strikes.

Chemical plants outside the town of Panchevo Serbia were destroyed making it the most polluted city in all of Europe. Children in the town today suffer alarmingly high levels of respiratory illness and cancers. Depleted uranium dust will remain airborne there for decades.

To further put this in context, let's look at how these machines compare to the constant struggle for social justice that goes on here in our own community. In 1981 the first food bank in Canada opened its doors in Edmonton. A year later, Canada purchased 138 CF-188s to the tune of $5,194,000,000. That's equivalent to a month's groceries for 825,755 families of four (Statistics Canada).

Over fifteen years ago, the Government of Canada stated its intention to eliminate child poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Today, one in six Canadian children lives in poverty. Four out of ten food bank users are children. One RBL 755 cluster bomb of the type dropped on Serbians in 1999 costs $19,000. Think of what a small non-governmental social organization could do with twenty thousand dollars!

How about next year we abandon the military airshow and hold an anti-poverty symposium, or have an international meeting of minds on what we can do to end global violence.