Protest of another BIW “Christening” of an Aegis destroyer in Bath on Saturday, October 18. The DDG-108, outfitted with “missile defense” systems, will be used to surround China as the U.S. now moves to double its naval presence in the Asian-Pacific region. For the past several years the Pentagon has been “war gaming” a U.S. first-strike attack on China and the Aegis destroyers role would be to intercept any remaining Chinese nuclear weapons that would be fired after the U.S. initial attack.

Any U.S. attack on Iran would be initiated by cruise missiles fired from Aegis destroyers - just as happened in 2001 when the U.S. launched the “shock and awe” invasion of Iraq.

Veterans for Peace will march from the Waterfront Park on Commercial Street in Bath beginning at 9:00 am to the Washington Street gate where those attending the “christening” will enter. Once at this spot VfP will hold a rally and one of the featured speakers will be a BIW worker who will speak about the need to convert the facility to sustainable technology production. A peace boat will lead the march from the Waterfront Park to the BIW gate.

A recent UMass-Amherst Economics Department study revealed that $1 billion invested in weapons production creates 8,555 jobs while that same amount of funds, invested in building mass transit rail systems at a place like BIW, would create 19,795 jobs. Thus conversion of the military industrial complex would be good for peace, good for the environment, and good for job creation.