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

This is a continuation of the conversation we started last week addressing the costs and impact of our long habit of engaging in the use of armed violence to solve conflict. Last week we looked at the costs to the combatants themselves and the sponsoring nation/group of engaging in violence. This week we will focus on the other costs of armed violence and the deeper, hidden costs of this form of problem solving.

Costs to Victims and Collateral Damage

• Civilians, men, women, children, the aged, none of them matter during the relentless march of armed violence. All their needs are swept aside. Everyone is a target. The innocent are killed and maimed. Their homes and everything they hold dear is decimated.
•  Homes, schools, places of worship, businesses, even hospitals are destroyed. In widespread looting during warfare, precious cultural artifacts are ruined or stolen, robbing a people of its cultural heritage.
• Bestiality and torture become ordinary and the most common victims are women. Rape is commonplace in war. For a piercing (fictionalized) account of one such story I refer you to the movie The Secret Life of Words. These acts of war make no sense to the victims because they did not cause or contribute to the violence in any way that they can see. It doesn’t connect, and they will live with the memories all their lives.
• The infrastructure of a country or region where violence has reigned is wiped out: electricity, water systems, roads, schools, food production and distribution, health care. It may take a generation or more for a country to rebuild its systems after devastating violence and generations more for it to take its place within the community of nations.

The Deeper, Hidden Costs

After terrorist incidents like 911 and the London and Madrid bombings, no one really feels safe anywhere. Life is cheap. During the 1950’s the threat of the atomic bomb haunted the world.  Though it has receded, it has not gone away entirely.

Now the world lives with the knowledge that genocide, urban warfare, militias, and terrorist cells with their cheap weapons and bombs are an ever-present reality. Armed militarises with all their technological prowess are not a match for the lightness, surprise and all out reckless determination of this new breed of violent actors.

A deep angst, fear and insecurity pervades the world. People can never relax and feel safe anywhere, whether they are children or adults. The spectre of rapid global warming now threatens us as well. Within the context of dwindling resources and increasing population, the future looks bleak, even grave. Will we fight to the death over who gets to live in the coolest climates?

Is this what we truly want? There might be a better way.

 Questions for Reflection:

How many terrorists are born out of and thrive on memories of past injuries and injustices carried out during prior wars and acts of armed violence? How many were victims themselves or suffered collateral damage or grew up hearing stories of humiliation and injury to their clan or tribe and vowed revenge?

How would our world be different if violence were no longer an option for settling conflicts?