The Price We Pay to Keep Armed Violence Going: Part One

 A Two-Part Series on the Costs of Armed Violence

Today is the first in a two-part series on the costs of armed violence. It is a difficult subject, one most of us would rather not face. Today’s blog will focus on the costs of armed violence to combatants. Next week’s blog will focus on the costs of violence to civilian victims and to the world as a whole.

I am addressing the use of organized violence used to solve problems, whether that violence be legal violence like war, or out-of-bounds violence like terrorism and genocide.  In actual practice, the effects on people from these forms of violence are the same: people die or suffer terrible injuries; they are displaced from their homes and some live with horrific memories that may haunt them all their lives. These are the true costs of armed violence and I will consider them as one. I invite readers to put emotionalism aside to simply question the price we are paying for using this form of problem solving.

Costs of Armed Warfare to Combatants:

• Deaths of servicemen and servicewomen, most at very young ages. What is the cost of these losses to their parents and surviving spouses and families?
• Soldiers are now surviving severe injuries in war that used to kill them, e.g. Traumatic Brain Injuries, severe burns, amputations. What is the cost in quality of life to the returning veterans with these profound injuries? What is the cost to their families and taxpayers of rehabilitation, treatment, care and maintenance?
• Servicemen and women experience (and have experienced in every war) disgusting, horrific events and scenes they have to survive, remember and carry home with them. Some never get over this and come home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Consider the cost of these emotional traumas to the young people themselves and to their families on their return.
• If the cause for which the young people are asked to give their lives feels honorable and valid, they may be able to recover. But there are an alarming number of young people returning from service in Iraq who are committing suicide. Could this be related to a loss of trust in the military itself, with the mission in Iraq or to a sense of betrayal by the government or the country?

Cost of Armed Warfare to the Nation:

• Annual defense spending by the US far surpasses any country on the planet. David Berry has done a superb job in gathering statistics which paint a vivid picture of the financial and human costs of war, including the fact that the US spends 59% of its budget on national defense.
• Profiteering by defense contractors has always been part of the dark underbelly of war and it has been cited by the New York Times in an editorial called The Lucrative Art of War . It is alive and well in the Iraq war, just as it was in all the other wars this nation has fought.

Questions for Reflection:

1. Are we really willing to keep paying the costs listed above or might there be other, more effective ways to deal with the issues that lead us to use armed violence?

2. Might there be better ways to spend a nation’s money than the current huge amounts spend on national defense?