I'm interested in the cost of war.
Aside from the economic costs of war, war comes with many other consequences aside from the death tallies of opposing militant forces in combat. The percentage of casualties during war that are civilian varies from 50-90% today, and has increased over the twentieth century towards the twenty-first century. One thing is certain: civilians are the biggest cost of war.
One reason why this percentage varies and is difficult to assess is because it is hard to measure the indirect costs of war. As the aid organization EMERGENCY describes:
Aside from the economic costs of war, war comes with many other consequences aside from the death tallies of opposing militant forces in combat. The percentage of casualties during war that are civilian varies from 50-90% today, and has increased over the twentieth century towards the twenty-first century. One thing is certain: civilians are the biggest cost of war.
One reason why this percentage varies and is difficult to assess is because it is hard to measure the indirect costs of war. As the aid organization EMERGENCY describes:
“A war victim is a person hit by a bomb, or a person who has stumbled on a landmine, or been hit by a bullet. But a war victim is also whoever is starving because there are landmines in the field he used to cultivate, whoever is unable to walk because the war has interrupted polio vaccination programs, whoever has lost an important, often only, source of income or protection with the loss of a family member.”
Indirect costs of war include deaths due to famine, malnutrition, displacement, epidemics, and leftover land mines, and although the percentages of deaths due to these reasons vary, these deaths always outnumber the deaths due to combat. Insurgent warfare has shifted the casualties of
war from the battlefield into the community, as more wars are being fought
within nation borders instead of internationally.
Aid organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and EMERGENCY respond to the human suffering in areas of armed conflict by providing rapid medical care, especially to injured civilian bystanders. However, as Gino Strada emphasizes in his book Green Parrots: A War Surgeon’s Diary, oftentimes there is a lack of medical supplies to save the lives of these people in need. Strada highlights the injuries due to widespread use of antipersonnel mines, especially the use of the PFM-1 landmine, or “Green Parrot,” that is often mistaken for a toy due to its shape and coloring. As a result, children often pick up this “toy mine” and experience traumatic injuries to their face, chest, and arms when the mine detonates.
Aid organizations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and EMERGENCY respond to the human suffering in areas of armed conflict by providing rapid medical care, especially to injured civilian bystanders. However, as Gino Strada emphasizes in his book Green Parrots: A War Surgeon’s Diary, oftentimes there is a lack of medical supplies to save the lives of these people in need. Strada highlights the injuries due to widespread use of antipersonnel mines, especially the use of the PFM-1 landmine, or “Green Parrot,” that is often mistaken for a toy due to its shape and coloring. As a result, children often pick up this “toy mine” and experience traumatic injuries to their face, chest, and arms when the mine detonates.
Surgery on mine injuries is complex and challenging, because usually medical teams must work in hazardous areas of armed conflict where fighting still occurs. Moreover, the task is made more difficult by the lack of medical resources, proper hygiene, and sometimes even the absence of water and electricity. In addition, assaults on hospitals, medical personnel, and medical facilities have become more prevalent in areas of armed conflict, despite prohibition by international law. Land mines are often concealed in farm land, which has long-term devastating effects on farming communities who rely on the land for survival. Not only do these mines result in several traumatic injuries and deaths when they are accidentally detonated, but as a result, displaced refugees who once relied on the land become hesitant to return home, and end up overwhelming the resources and economies of the areas to which they flee.
In Green Parrots, Gino Strada criticizes the allocation of “humanitarian aid” funds towards funding military intervention instead of towards funding health improvement of precarious areas such as refugee camps. In 2011, the United States spent over $600 billion on military-related expenditures.18 In contrast, the U.S. spent only about $23 billion on humanitarian assistance and international development during this time. As President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” Furthermore, as military spending diverts resources such as food, water, and medical supplies, this only exacerbates situations of armed conflict by increasing socioeconomic and sociopolitical tensions that arise from a lack of good health in a population.
Physical trauma usually comes with psychological trauma as well, which is perhaps one of the reasons why land mines are employed in the first place – to establish a sense of fear into the minds of the “enemy” – and after all, the faces of mutilated children create a bigger impact than the faces of mutilated adults, which may be why green parrots are so rampant in some areas of armed conflict. The most important solution in alleviating the costs of war is to redirect funds from the military into areas of public health. Specifically within areas of armed conflict, there is often a lack of medical resources to treat civilian casualties. In Green Parrots, Gino Strada expressed his frustration during a case where a simple blood transfusion would have saved the life of his patient. Yet due to the lack of availability of blood in that area, his patient died. Emergency medical care and rehabilitation of victims are an essential aspect of easing the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people affected by war, and despite its importance, funds are often not allocated towards it.
In Green Parrots, Gino Strada criticizes the allocation of “humanitarian aid” funds towards funding military intervention instead of towards funding health improvement of precarious areas such as refugee camps. In 2011, the United States spent over $600 billion on military-related expenditures.18 In contrast, the U.S. spent only about $23 billion on humanitarian assistance and international development during this time. As President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” Furthermore, as military spending diverts resources such as food, water, and medical supplies, this only exacerbates situations of armed conflict by increasing socioeconomic and sociopolitical tensions that arise from a lack of good health in a population.
Physical trauma usually comes with psychological trauma as well, which is perhaps one of the reasons why land mines are employed in the first place – to establish a sense of fear into the minds of the “enemy” – and after all, the faces of mutilated children create a bigger impact than the faces of mutilated adults, which may be why green parrots are so rampant in some areas of armed conflict. The most important solution in alleviating the costs of war is to redirect funds from the military into areas of public health. Specifically within areas of armed conflict, there is often a lack of medical resources to treat civilian casualties. In Green Parrots, Gino Strada expressed his frustration during a case where a simple blood transfusion would have saved the life of his patient. Yet due to the lack of availability of blood in that area, his patient died. Emergency medical care and rehabilitation of victims are an essential aspect of easing the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people affected by war, and despite its importance, funds are often not allocated towards it.