Memorial Day: Understanding The True Costs Of War
By Jenn Breckenridge
Filed Under The Big Picture |
This Memorial Day weekend, Bush stated, “Kids will be out of school, Moms and Dads will be firing up the grill, and families across our country will mark the unofficial beginning of Summer,” Bush said. “But as we do, we should all remember the true purpose of this holiday – to honor the sacrifices that make our freedom possible.” This is a rare opportunity to follow the advice of our President. Let’s take a stark look at some of the human, environmental, and financial sacrifices of the US-led invasion of Iraq, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Ecosystems
Though the total toll on Iraq’s environment due to the war is yet unknown, many obvious aspects can be examined. Depleted uranium used as munitions by the US military in Iraq has caused cancer rates to soar in both children and adults. Both the ancient rivers of the Tigris and the Euphrates run through Iraq, providing drinking water to people as well as a diverse array of West Asian wildlife. Approximately 90% of the marshes on the lower Tigris and Euphrates rivers have dried up due to strategic dam building. This has caused the disappearance of water buffalo, foxes, birds, and boar.
Intentionally-set oil fires have released thousands of tons of greenhouse gasses into the air. These fires have also polluted the Sea of Oman with fallout from burning oil debris, which is laced with poisonous chemicals such as mercury, sulfur, and furans. This sea is home to 4 out of 5 species of endangered marine turtles, as well as many types of birds and fish. These species are now being poisoned. Poorly tended oil wells have spilled in surrounding ground water and soil, contaminating animal habitats and human water supplies. Potential farmland has been ruined by the scattered unexploded ordinances and craters caused by bombings. Overall, it is clear that the natural elements, as well as the cities and infrastructure will take countless years to recover.
Human Lives
According to the book The Three Trillion Dollar War, written by economics professors Linda J. Bilmes and Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics, the Pentagon classifies over half of the soldiers who have been medically evacuated from the war zones as non-combat casualties. Those include soldiers injured during vehicle and helicopter crashes and training accidents. Since the war began on March 19, 2003, US casualties are now at approximately 4,080; the number of wounded is at about 30,330.
Iraqi casualties are a bit harder to track, the reason for which is summed up by Lieutenant General Tommy Franks, who once famously announced, “We don’t do body counts.” Though the US military apparently does not find counting their victims a desirable task, other sources such as the World Health Organization and Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health do. The results range from 100,000 to over a million, and there is much heated controversy as to what end of the spectrum the actual number of casulties lies. Whether 100,000 or 1,000,000 Iraqi people have died in this war, it is plain to see that it’s literally overkill, considering Iraq never attacked the US previous to the Bush administration’s preemptive strike.
These numbers do note even begin to address the drastic changes to the quality of life for Iraqi people, such as clean water shortages, massive displacement, unemployment, and disruption of education.
Finances
At the time of this publishing, the official numbers of how much money the US has spent on the Iraq War is a few dollars shy of $523 billion. The Pentagon estimated the war would cost $50 billion in total; the price tag is already ten times that amount and counting. That’s about $1700 for every man, woman, and child in the US.
Then of course, there are costs that do not begin until a soldier leaves the battle zone. Currently, American taxpayers spend $4.3 billion a year in disability compensation to veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, which lasted less than a month. Of the 44% of those veterans who applied for disability compensation, 90% of their claims have been approved. Applying those percentages to the current war, The Three Trillion Dollar War estimates that $590 billion will be distributed to those veterans over the course of their lives, which does not include the projected $38 billion in Social Security disability-compensation benefits to Iraq war veterans who no longer can work.
The wild abandon applied to our budget for this war is particularly disheartening when you realize this sobering statistic: according to the CIA’s World Factbook, the US has an account balance of $-747,100,000,000, which makes us last out of the 164 nations in the world. Last.
Perhaps with the highly questionable results of this war, it’s time to advise our representatives on how to go forward. Ready to take action?
- Call, write, or visit your Senator or Representative in Congress and tell them what you think about the war
- Start an email campaign-send this link around to your friends and family asking Congress to bring our troops home now and ask them to pass it on
- Take an activist training camp with Code Pink in Washington, D.C. this Summer
- Share this video of Dick Cheney’s concerns about Iraq with your community
Check out the video…
Posted on May 26, 2008 |
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3 Responses to “Memorial Day: Understanding The True Costs Of War”
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No matter which “side” of this war one is on, the effects of the United States actions have been truly horrifying.
Amidst all the rhetoric of collateral damage and terrorist cells, lies a tremendous heap of suffering and destruction.
One of the worst human caused crises of our lifetime.
Thanks for keeping it real Jenn on Memorial Day, lest we forget.
I found Memorial Day to be a day of reflection of all we have and all that has been lost. I am deeply concerned for the children of the world and how they are all impacted but what is happening is the world today. How can we raise children to desire peace if all they have even experienced is a time of war and fear?
I almost think that we should follow England and Canada’s lead by calling it “Veteran’s Day” vs Memorial Day. For a full week, the Brits and Canadians wear little poppy buttons on their lapels to honor and be reminded of the veterans of war that lost their lives so that we and our families can live and thrive as we do. I never really understood why it’s referred to as “Memorial” Day. The term ‘veteran’ conjures up a human face, whereas ‘memorial’ makes me think of a gravestone.
My father lost his father when he was 9 years old. His British battleship was torpedoed by a German u-boat and my grandfather went down with it along with 859 other men. They recently published the footage of his ship, HMS Barham, sinking and then exploding in real time. Amazing to think that as one watches this video, 859 men are drowning, or struggling to escape. And then, within 2 minutes of the ship being hit, it blew up into plumes of smoke and ash: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7009975008653689943
I think my father was 70 years old - 61 years older - when he finally saw that footage. And all I could wonder was, “what was going through his mind when he was watching it? knowing that his father was in those plumes of ash…”; even I find it hard to watch, even though I never knew my grandfather. But, yes, thank you Jenn, for reminding us that “Memorial Day” is more than just getting a day off to party and barby in the backyard. It should be a time of remembrance…