Don Quixote interviews Bruce Gagnon on US/Israeli space weapons

Posted: 25th July 2025

In 1989, Richard Sanders founded the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT). COAT’s work led to a 20-year ban against military trade shows on municipal property in Canada’s capital. Over the decades, he organized rallies, marches, conferences, wrote articles, produced radio shows, and edited COAT’s antiwar magazine, Press for Conversion! His research inspired two Opposition Day Debates in the House of Commons on Canada’s arms exports.

Since his recent “retirement,” Richard has begun making satirical animations on topics that engaged him for 40+ years. He has just created a surreal Pythonesque project called the Quixote News Network which brings his sculptures and cartoons to life to poke fun at the giant windmills of war and injustice.

The Dude of la Mancha chats with longtime peace activist, Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. A clay sculpture of Quixote comes alive to talk with Bruce about current efforts by corporate “welfare bums” of the military industrial complex to make a profitable killing for US war industries, the Pentagon and their elitist political puppets.

This lively, fact-filled discussion becomes a somewhat surreal mini-documentary which melds fun animations, photos and historic film footage, with a range of deadly-serious topics.

Quixote and Bruce talk about the recent failure of Israeli military systems following their illegal unprovoked US-backed attack against Iran. Bruce explains how Israel’s US-funded “Iron Dome” system and its “Arrow 3” Anti-Ballistic Missiles (which were tested in Alaska), are part of an offensive first-strike system that, like Trump’s much-hyped “Golden Dome,” is not effective as a defensive system, but will be very useful in continuing to funnel public wealth away from socially-useful public programs into the coffers of the world’s biggest weapons makers.

Bruce also sums up his 45+ year career as a social justice/peace activist which began when his eyes were opened to the military’s lies, during his time in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. He explains what has motivated him to continue the fight against various windmills over the decades and speaks about the importance of humor and satire to continue the struggle for peace, justice and truth.

Larry Johnson, a former CIA Intel Analyst (sonar21.com) and Monty Python enthusiast, has called this QNN video “very educational and entertaining.” So, obviously, you will like it too!

You can watch the interview with Bruce here.