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The Human Cost of War
By Cindy Sheehan and Sam Bostaph
02/17/06 "ICH"
-- -- The whole world is watching a human drama
that is both tragedy and travesty. As if the lessons of Vietnam
had been presented to dull students and needed repeating,
Americans and peoples of all nations watch as President George
W. Bush's preemptive and unconstitutional war in Iraq continues.
The cradle of civilization is being turned into its grave by a
president whose undefined "noble cause" has thus far cost the
lives of almost 3,000 American soldiers, wounded and maimed
almost 20,000 more, and killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. The
land that nourished the first written language and the roots of
civilized political order has become a charnel house.
The defeated Iraqi army of Saddam Hussein is no longer the enemy
in George Bush's unjust war; its place has been taken by
insurgent forces, as well as by al Qaeda and other groups who
use the country as a battlefield and guerrilla training ground
for their own troops. Added to the tragedy in Iraq is the
travesty of Bush's "War on Terror" -- a formless justification
for the growth of federal government power and the steady
erosion of our Bill of Rights through warrantless searches,
illegal spying, kidnapping and torture, and imprisonment without
either trial or conviction.
American soldiers -- courageous, dedicated and trained to fight
to preserve our freedoms, and raised to believe in the
importance of a virtuous life -- are fighting under Rules of
Engagement that permit the use of such destructive retaliatory
force that they cannot avoid the commission of atrocities
against helpless civilians. American Marines -- always prepared
to be "the first to fight" and whose motto is "semper fidelis"
-- are being used for immoral ends by an administration that has
proven faithless to the people of the country it pretends to
represent.
And what has this corruption of the best of our youth in an
immoral military debacle cost? In trying to answer this
question, we submit that the least significant costs are those
that can be quantified. The most recent and most general attempt
to estimate both the direct and indirect costs of George Bush's
war is that of economists Linda Bilmes and Joe Stiglitz, who
summarized their estimate in a paper presented at the January
2006 meetings in Boston of the American Economic Association.
Bilmes and Stiglitz present a "moderate" estimate of $1.3
trillion for past and expected federal budget outlays related to
this unnecessary war. This includes military operations,
reconstruction, foreign aid and enhanced base security for the
military bases in Iraq. Currently, the monthly average cost of
military operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan is $7.1 billion
-- enough in one year of expenditure to rebuild the city of New
Orleans, including levees that would withstand category 5
hurricanes.
In calculating their estimate of the total of direct and
indirect costs of the war, Bilmes and Stiglitz include an
estimate of the economic value of American soldiers killed and
wounded, and the estimated future costs of caring for those
wounded, while excluding any calculations of similar costs for
other countries, including Iraqi soldiers, civilians and
insurgents killed or wounded. They include the direct and
indirect costs of the American military arms and equipment used
and destroyed, but not that of the destruction to the land and
economy of the Iraqis. They include the increased costs of
providing greater security for military bases, but not the costs
of increased counter-intelligence activities by the National
Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal
Bureau of Investigation.
Bilmes and Stiglitz admit that they were unable to include most
of the economic costs associated with Bush's war; for instance,
they omit the damage to international trade and the standard of
living in the world as a consequence of the increased trade
barriers imposed in the "War on Terror". They omit the economic
damage caused by higher prices for oil because of decreased
production in the Middle East, and the consequent lower
production of other goods and services as energy expenditures
replace others in budgeting. They omit the loss of investment
expenditures in the American economy as military spending
replaces domestic spending and interest payments on debt from
deficit spending on the war crowd out business borrowing.
If all economic costs could be included, Bilmes and Stiglitz
speculate that their estimate of the Iraq war costs would rise
to $2.2 trillion. We submit that this is still too low because
it fails to allow for the fact that military expenditures are
expenditures for destruction, not for the creation of value and
increases in the standard of living. Resources wasted in the
destruction of human life and property, are resources that
cannot be used for building houses or feeding the hungry. It
also fails to allow for the demoralization and destruction of
the whole American military establishment that is one of the
seldom-mentioned results of fighting this immoral, pointless and
savage war.
To reach their cost estimates, Bilmes and Stiglitz had to make a
number of restrictive assumptions, a change in any one of which
would greatly change the results of their calculations. The only
unimpeachable fact and undeniably true statement in their entire
paper is a concluding remark that "the most important things in
life -- like life itself -- are priceless." And what do they
recommend for the future? Like a slap in the face of all that is
moral and good in humankind and its potential for greatness,
Bilmes and Stiglitz urge BETTER COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS before
undertaking future wars!
How does one react to the recognition that life is priceless,
but a price should be put upon it for the purpose of deciding
whether to make war? It can only be with outrage. We are
outraged that a war should be considered as anything but a last
resort, fought in defense and after an attack by an organized
and dangerous enemy bent on our destruction or conquest. We are
outraged that a pre-emptive and poorly thought-out invasion of a
foreign country was undertaken under a pretense that was
subsequently revealed to be a pack of lies. We are outraged at
the incalculable human cost of the invasion and occupation of
Iraq. We are outraged that human and other resources desperately
needed to respond to the Gulf Coast disaster last fall were
instead in Iraq, being used for the wasting and occupation of
that country.
Outrage is what Cindy was feeling when she toured the Lower
Ninth Ward of New Orleans in mid-February. Outrage, sorrow,
horror and sickness over the destruction she saw there. A
destruction that is both complete and profound. A destruction
that was made worse by poor preparation at all levels of
government. Miles and miles of collapsed houses, overturned cars
and toys alike flung far and wide: miles and miles of proof of
the incompetence and callousness of government.
Cindy was in New Orleans as people were being kicked out of
their subsidized FEMA housing while hundreds of millions of
dollars of "FEMA trailers" sat in lots and on railroad cars
waiting for a place to be parked. She listened to Richard
Skinner of Homeland Security say on CNN that FEMA is spending
"eight to ten million dollars" to spread gravel on a lot in
Arkansas so that the 11,000 trailers that should be in the Gulf
States, but are parked on that lot, won't sink into the mud
while they sit. She saw hundreds of units of low income housing
in St. Bernard's Parish that could be rehabilitated with some
sheetrock and paint, but are sitting empty and useless. Hundreds
of residents could return to their homes for what it would cost
for 18 months use of two of those empty trailers -- each of
which is estimated by the Times-Picayune to cost as much as
$120,000.
Cindy left New Orleans depressed and missing her son, Casey,
even more. Like other American soldiers, Casey was raised to
understand the importance of a virtuous life. He neither sought,
nor wanted, to kill innocent people in Iraq, and he voiced this
often during his last visit home at Christmas, 2003. On April 4,
2004, he was killed while on a rescue mission to retrieve
wounded comrades in arms. Casey came home to be buried, as have
almost 3000 others in the last three years.
But, what of those soldiers who come home wounded or unscathed?
To what do they return? They come home to a Veterans
Administration that is inadequately funded for the job it has to
do. Too many come home to divorce, to become homeless, to die by
their own hands. Iraq War veterans come home to a VA that has
failed even to provide the benefits due veterans of the Vietnam
War -- a war that has since claimed more veterans through
suicide than were killed fighting.
Like the water that poured over the weak and compromised levees
in New Orleans, the human lives and money that are being poured
into the sands of distant Iraq are harming our very humanity.
Rather than accolades, the American people are receiving
worldwide hatred in return. Rather than greater security, they
are receiving less. Rather than expanding freedom in the world,
they are losing their own to a mindless expansion of federal
government power.
Life is priceless. The present value of all the future income
Casey Sheehan might have earned is miniscule compared to the
value he had to himself, to Cindy, to his father, to his brother
and sisters -- to all his family and friends. Multiply that way
of valuing Casey by 3000 killed, 20,000 wounded, and thousands
mentally damaged or embittered for life and you get an
obscenity. This is the human cost of war.
Cindy Sheehan is the proud mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan
who was 24 when he was KIA in Sadr City, Iraq on 04/04/04. She
is also the author of Not One More Mother's Child available at
www.koabooks.com. Cindy is the founder and President of Gold
Star Families for Peace. Cindy is above all the very proud
mother of Carly, Andy, and Janey Sheehan who hold down the fort
in California.
Sam Bostaph, Ph.D., is Pofessor of Economics and Chairman,
Department of Economics, University of Dallas. He is the author
of numerous scholarly articles on topics in intellectual
history, economic theory and economic theory. A former Marine,
who later served as a U.S. Army intelligence staff officer
during the Vietnam War era, he is the proud father of Katie and
Megan Bostaph and prays that they may never go to war
themselves.
First published at michaelmoore.com
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