Arms and the Military
Connection With Health
Since World War II, the world has spent more than $35 trillion on arms. The aims of the arms industry are antithetical to good health. The wares it produces and promotes are nightmares of death and destruction, designed to kill and maim. Further death and illness is created by the long term effects of toxic substances and mines long after the end of the war. In addition to the direct physical violence that weapons inflict on their victims, the industry itself inflicts economic violence by diverting enormous sums of money and other resources from health and other social programs. The recent destruction of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, which was a direct outcome of the money needed to plan and build dikes being diverted to the War on Iraq, is perhaps the most striking example we have of the consequences of deflecting money needed for health and welfare to the military.
Issues
Nature of the weapons
There are a variety of products and processes associated with war that produce injury, disease and disability over long periods of time. Chemicals such as agent orange, land mines, and radiation from depleted uranium are conspicuous examples. Some weapons are so terrible in their consequences that they may be worse than any evil they are intended to deter – even assuming that they are used in a “just war.” Many people feel that nuclear weapons and germ warfare fall into this category. Perhaps, as humanity matures and finds more adequate means of resolving conflicts, war itself will some day come to be seen as worse than the ills it seeks to cure.
Need for the globalization of law and govenment
People who lean toward an anarchist point of view are acutely aware of the damage caused by ordinary governments, and are afraid that a world government might exert an even more totalitarian and destructive control over people than we see now. We cannot prove that they are wrong. Conservatives, on the other hand, see a world government as an affront to their notions of patriotism. A sovereign power cannot abide any larger power that might have the capacity to override its will. To do so would not be in the interests of ones own country. And indeed, at times that might be so. Even so, given the nature of modern weapons, if the earth is to survive as an habitat capable of supporting human life, we must move toward a world government in order to create more adequate ways of resolving conflicts and addressing global concerns. At the present time the United States has attempted to fill the power gap by unilaterally declaring itself to be the world government.
As the age of nations has passed, so has the age of empires. For the US to persist in this effort can lead only to a protracted and often violent struggle against its usurpation of a power that rightfully belongs to everyone. We need a United Nations that cannot be dominated by any one power – a world government that is truly a democracy of nations. We also need a system of international law that is enforced by courts that are able to resolve conflicts and prevent violations of human rights. Without such a world order individual countries will continue to use war as a means of achieving their national ambitions.
Widening gap between the Rich and the Poor
A sufficiently large gap between the rich and the poor will invariably breed violence. This violence will take many forms – both within countries and between them. The rich have to build walls against the poor and weapons to defend these walls. They also need to resort to violence in the repression of the poor. Currently the gap between the rich and the poor continues to grow. It is largely for this reason that war is becoming a permanent state of affairs.
Diversity and Fear
In order to wage war against a group I must first demonize it. This is much easier to do in relation to people I perceive to be very different than I am. It is for this reason that religious, ethnic, racial and cultural differences so frequently contribute to war. Fear of strangers – of those people who look, dress, and behave in ways that are different from us – may be built into the human species as a protective adaptation. In the modern world, however, it is no longer adaptive. Therefore it may be that deliberate educational efforts need to be made to help people understand that underneath their diverse ways of thinking and being, all human beings share a common set of needs, hopes and fears.
Means and Ends
The question of means and ends cannot be settled with a couple of easy platitudes. In many situations people are faced with hard choices. The means necessary to protect one value may sometimes be damaging to another value. At the same time, looking at the extreme destructiveness of modern warfare, and at the huge financial, social, physical and economic costs of an arms race, it may be that the risk and harm created by the development and use of modern weaponry may outweigh any conceivable good that it is meant to protect. Certainly one would have to say that this is the case with regard to biological and nuclear warfare.
Connections with other topics
Note: As we point out links to other topics we generally highlight only the most significant ones. After all, everything is interconnected with everything else in one way or another. However, given the overwhelming and generally negative impact of military spending and adventures, it is hard not to include links to most of the other topics on the page. Briefly, then, here is why some of these connections are important:
The health impact of modern warfare only begins with the direct injuries caused by bullets and bombs. Many more illnesses and deaths result from the destruction of the infrastructure that wars deliberately impose on enemy countries. A third form of illness and disability is created by the toxic consequences of materials that are used in wars – agent orange and depleted uranium being perhaps the most conspicuous examples that we are seeing at this time.
The major use of the huge military complex that the United States possesses is to suppress the uprisings and revolutions that have their source in the economic inequity within and between countries.
When wars destroy the infrastructure of countries, clean water and adequate amounts of healthy food become unavailable. This opens a Pandora’s box of health problems.
It has been said the truth is the first casualty of war. This is true. But it works both ways. War is the creation of repressed speech and prohibited truth telling. Generally a nation that is preparing to attack another country or countries spends a considerable amount of time and energy suppressing any speech or facts that would allow people to know what the real issues are and what the real concerns of the “enemy” are. When the media cooperate with the powerful elites in constructing a false reality in the minds of the public, they are accomplices in the creation of unjust wars.
The vast military machine of the United States for all practical intents and purposes belongs to the multinational corporations. These multinational corporations have become sufficiently powerful to evade the authority of any duly elected body of people in any state. Without a democratic global government to counterbalance the power of the multinationals, the multinationals are the de facto rulers of the world.
When a society is on a war footing the government has an powerful excuse for disregarding the human rights both of the “enemy” and of its own people. The inhuman gulags that the United States has created all over the world, within which torture is a normal procedure, is perhaps the most conspicuous example of this fact.
The military and prisons are the two primary models for “total” institutions.
War is the greatest single factor in the creation of refugees and refugee camps.
Without a system of international law that is actively supported by all nations, wars and threats of wars will continue to be the primary means of resolving serious international conflicts.
One of the great ironies of the modern world is the religions – virtually all of which preach love and mutual respect – are so often major contributing factors in wars. This fact demands careful scrutiny.
Perhaps the most difficult question that needs to be addressed by activists is how to achieve social change, and resist repression and foreign occupation, in the face of the overwhelming military power of states, and of the United States in particular.
The United States continues to undermine the United Nations as a democracy of nations. As militarily the most powerful nation on the earth the US has succumbed to the temptation to set itself of as the head of a world empire rather than as a leader in the use of negotiation, understanding and mutual respect among nations. This is the single most important contribution to the continuing use of war as a means of solving problems in the world today.
What Can Be Done?
War emerges out of the economic and political realities that govern the world. In assessing the best way to intervene to stop wars it is important to look at the root causes. The lack of economic equity in the world, the use of the mass media to create misleading images of reality in people’s minds, the unrestrained power of multinational corporations and the decision of the United States to run the world as its empire would seem to be some of the more important root causes. Significant work is also possible on attacking demonized images of people who are different, and in fostering civilized techniques for conflict resolution. Finally the development of more effective non-violent strategies for social change – strategies that military power is unable to defuse – is crucial. Because the issue is complex, progress will be dependent upon many people attacking the problem in different ways.
Articles
The General Effects of War
The Immediate Health Effects of War
The Long Term Health Effects of War
The Social and Economic Effects of War
The Spiritual and Moral Effects of War