Canadian Bullets, Dead Iraqis

With up to 13,802 Iraqi civilian deaths to date, Canadians will now be providing one of the most basic necessities for the US occupation forces in Iraq: bullets. The Canadian company SNC Technologies Inc. (SNC TEC) is now part of a multinational consortium of small-caliber ammunition producers whose purpose is to supply between 300 million -500 million more bullets to occupation forces per year, and potentially for at least five years.

Beyond Canada, General Dynamics, the US defence contractor, also awarded contracts to several small bullet suppliers - including Winchester, a unit of Olin Corporation and Israel Military Industries. Their also in discussion with several other international producers, including General Dynamics Santa Barbara Sistemas, Madrid, Spain in an effort to try to meet the ammunitions demand. Michael S. Wilson, president of General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, said,“Our goal is to ensure maximum supply support for the U.S. armed forces in their war against terror.”

The high demand in bullets is in response to a recent U.S. Army market survey for a “Small-Caliber Ammunition Systems Integrator”. The Financial Times reports that the US occupation forces “will need 300m to 500m more bullets a year for at least five years, or more than 1.5m a year for combat and training. And because the single army-owned, small-calibre ammunition factory in Lake City, Missouri, can produce only 1.2m bullets annually, the army is suddenly scrambling to get private defence contractors to help fill the gap.”

“We’re using so much ammunition in Iraq there isn’t enough capacity around,” said Eric Hugel, a defence industry analyst at Sephens Inc. “They have to go internationally.”

The Financial Times also reports that the “bullet problem has its roots in a Pentagon effort to restock its depleted war material reserve. But it has been exacerbated by the ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, where rearguard and supply units have been thinly-stretched throughout the countryside, occasionally without active duty combat soldiers to protect them.”

Recently rejuvenated after the historic demonstrations in New York, where half a million people were unified in saying “No to the Bush agenda”, a campaign focusing on these contracts could have a direct effect on saving the lives of Iraqis, and give traction to an again waking anti-war movement. For the international anti-war movement, which is struggling to live up to it’s reputation as “the other super power”, such contracts could provide important anti-war campaigns in our own nations, raising the social costs for the US, and other complicit countries, in waging war on Iraq. For Canada, long in denial about it’s active participation in the US war on terror, the SNC Technologies contract should highlight the fact that Canada has not only provided previous military and diplomatic support for the war on terror, but is now literally, without doubt, providing the ammunition to kill Iraqis.

As for the general structure of the contracts, General Dynamics reports that they will serve as the systems integrator responsible for supply chain management, with Winchester serving as a principal supplier of all calibers of ammunition, including 5.56mm, 7.62mm and Cal. 50 ammunitions. Israel Military Industries Ltd. currently produces ammunition to U.S. military specifications for each of the calibers being sought and will be relied upon to be a significant production partner on the team. SNC will also be a critical provider of select ammunition across all calibers being sought.

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