The writer is a freelance journalist.
Despite the massive anti-war movement following the September 11 attacks, the US invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, wreaking havoc on millions of lives. The invasions not only destroyed the physical infrastructure of the two countries but also tore apart the social fabric of Afghan and Iraqi societies.
Even the destruction caused by these two wars could not prevent humanity from waging more conflicts. Syria and Libya followed the path of armed conflicts, making more than 11 million people homeless besides the killing of over 500,000 people. Their suicidal path also caused financial losses worth over $150.
The recent Ukraine crisis not only raises questions over Russian intentions but also underscores the need to teach our future generations about the horrors of war. We seem to have some kind of fascination with wars, killings and destruction. This penchant for destructiveness is not innate; it has been reinforced through the media and the film industry. Hollywood played a lethal role in glorifying violence, death and destruction. Patriarchy, chauvinism and contempt for peaceful means of resolving disputes are also believed to be some of the factors leading to wars and conflicts. Academics all over the world have also overemphasised the balance of terror or balance of power theory that started the arms race in several parts of the world, prompting countries to gather weapons of mass destruction.
Many pro-peace people believe that to tackle militarism and belligerence, we must incorporate books and literature that explain the horror of wars, putting forward suggestions that can help people and states break away from this destructive practice. It is unfortunate that anti-war activists are called ‘idealistic’, and the desire for world peace is described as nothing but a fantasy.
For advocates of militarism, it is immature to believe that people can live in peace and harmony, but those who oppose this mindset assert that it is possible to avert bloodshed and carnage – two things that are direct consequences of any war or conflict. They argue that our children should be taught at school how catastrophic war can be for society. Our college- and university-level students should also be taught the message of love, brotherhood, mutual cooperation and coexistence. Our intellectuals should invest their energies in unearthing the horror of military conflicts and the humanitarian catastrophes that they create.
One such effort was made by the late intellectual Chris Hedges whose book ‘What Every Person Should Know About War’ is a masterpiece. Although it was written almost 19 years ago, the horrors that it explains are still relevant. Hedges was known for using sophisticated vocabulary, but in this book, he described a number of questions related to war in a simple and easy-to-understand manner. The book is written in a Q&A format which makes it far easier for readers to understand.
The writer begins with the definition of war, followed by its history. He asserts that of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for just 268 years – or just eight percent of recorded history. The book mentions the appalling number of killings, which should shame those who claim to be the supreme and most rational of all creatures. It says that at least 108 million people were killed in wars in the 20th century, adding that the estimates for the total number killed in wars throughout human history range from 150 million to one billion. These numbers do not include the hapless people who perished in conflicts, wars and invasions that happened after the publication of this book.
For instance, the prestigious Lancet Medical Journal claimed in 0ctober 2006 that around 666,000 people were killed as a result of the US invasion of the country until 2006 in Iraq alone. The total number of the Iraqis who have been killed since the illegal invasion is believed to be over 2.4 million now. The claim of the journal was disputed by some sections of British society, but when the same journal published about the death toll of the Kosovo War, the findings were not only accepted but also widely cited by the ruling classes of the West.
The book talks about some crucial details of the global armed forces, claiming that the combined global armed forces had 21.3 million people at the time of writing of that book. “China has the world’s largest army with 2.4 million personnel. America is second with 1.4 million. India has 1.3 million, North Korea one million, and Russia 900,000. Of the world’s 20 largest militaries, 14 are in developing nations.”
In our zeal for patriotism, we tend to forget how much war costs us. Since the book primarily targeted Americans who don’t have strong opinions against war – thanks to the corporate media and rhetoric of warmongers sitting in the power corridors of Washington – most of the statistics are about the US, the sole superpower. The book claims that from 1975 to 2003, the US spent between three and six percent of its GDP on national defence – or approximately 15 to 30 percent of each year’s federal budget. “In the first years of the twenty-first century, this meant spending roughly $350 billion per year.”
Hedges critically compares this spending with the budgetary allocations for education and other sectors during all those years, “In comparison, annual spending for other programs included roughly $15 billion on state and international assistance and $60 billion on education.” The US government often claims to have nothing for people from the bottom layer of social stratification. Recently, it refused to waive college debts. Education is one of the biggest expenses in the world’s second-largest democracy, but when it comes to military spending, no country can be as generous as the US.
Hedges notes that from 1940 to 1996 (a period that includes several cycles of war and peace, including the arms race of the cold war), the US spent $16.23 trillion on military (of which $5.82 trillion was spent on nuclear weapons), $1.70 trillion on healthcare and $1.24 trillion on international affairs. This is in addition to the whopping five trillion dollar that is said to have been spent by the world on the ‘war on terror’.
Some estimates suggest an even higher number. For instance, the September 2021 report of the Watson Institute claims that the US spent $8 trillion on the ‘war on terror’. The UK, Russia, France, India, Gulf monarchies and other states also pumped trillions of dollars into military spending during the 20 years of the war on terror.
The writer offers a breakup of the spending that Washington carried out over the decades. It claims that the cost of the Gulf War was approximately $76 billion. “Vietnam cost $500 billion; the Korean War, $336 billion; and World War II, almost $3 trillion. Put another way, the Gulf War cost each person in the United States $306; Vietnam, $2,204 per person; Korea, $2,266 per person; and World War II, $20,388 per person. At its outset, estimates for the cost of the Iraqi War were $50 to $140 billion, and an additional $75 to $500 billion for occupation and peacekeeping, or from $444 to $2,274 per person.”
Despite being the sole superpower of the world, the US still houses the second-largest army in the world with 1.4 million active duty personnel. “The US military also employs 627,000 civilians. The defence industry employs another three million. In total, the military and its supporting manufacturing base employs 3.5 percent of the US labour force. In 2002, the Department of Defence spent $170.8 billion with military contractors such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin.”
To be continued
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