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3-Inrtlanb (Observer
August IO, 2011
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A Missed Opportunity on Dept Ceiling
War costs rarely told
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For months the deadline
loomed; on Aug. 2 the USA
would reach its limit on bor
rowing. Hard times and ugly
arguing took place, but in the
end an a g reem en t was
reached. Call it what you will:
a compromise, a resolution,
“the president surrenders” read a NY Times
headline. I’ll just call it a disappointment.
1 never once heard mention of military spend
ing, the cost of running military bases all over
the globe, the cost and inadequacy of our com
bat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, or any
thing else about our failed military policy.
It is a triple whammy: we spend more on these
campaigns than anything else, they are not
working, and challenging the status quo guar
antees political death— perhaps the only truth
in American politics. What will it take to hon
estly talk about the military industrial complex in
America?
The truth about war is rarely told; war is a
brutal, harsh, and traumatic reality. Lives are
changed; soldiers and civilians die. One truth is
that in today’s American conflicts far more
deaths are civilian than combatant.
In World W ar I about one in 20 deaths was
civilian, today about one in 20 is combatant (the
tables have turned)— a harsh and traumatic
reality— for all the killing we do little is achieved;
no wonder we don’t talk about it!
There is a certain underlying belief, in this
country, that war is inevitable and that violence
(“strength through superior firepower”) is the
best response. It is a strong mythology, taught
from a very early age, and rarely challenged, but
largely inaccurate.
The opposing truths: Violence rarely ends
with the same success as non-violence; and the
bases the U.S. has in *135 different countries
have done little to slow the prevalence of war
and even less in the way of making anyone safer
through combat operations. The success, if
there is any, of combat operations is almost
always a short lived one.
There is a rich history of the efficacy of
nonviolence, and the ability of peace-building
and peace-making operations to achieve mutu
ally beneficial outcomes. Violent conflict can be
avoided and/or ended and enduring positive
change is made.
Many of our military leaders are aware of, and
open to, this reality. Gen. Petraeus is one modem
example, he routinely requested more non-com
bat operations when he spoke to Congress; he
said they were less costly in human life and
monetarily.
Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke prolifically
about the continued need for disarmament, the
human cost of war, and the need to “compose
difference, not with arms, but with intellect and
decent purpose.”
Make no doubt about it; the military-indus
trial complex is alive and well. On any day, week,
month, or year, in the last six decades, more
money is spent on military operations than
anything else— more commonly— than every
thing else combined!
There are war profiteers and in principle this
creates a problem not just in transparency (what
are the real interests?), but also because it creates
contradictory goals. If a business is profitable,
then the business will seek to maintain profits;
decisions on peace and war should never be left
to private individuals, businesses, or corpora
tions, directly or indirectly (campaign contribu
tions and other such influence) the human ten
dency toward greed is simply too problematic.
I had hoped, so desperately, that financial
crisis ruin— could have forced the issue. I
don’t know what it will take, how much worse
things will have to get, to face the emergent
issue of this generation: violence was not, is not,
and never will be the answer to our problems as
it tends to be found at the source and cause of
them. The best truth to this is exposed in our
military itself, where non-combat operations are
so much more effective.
We are in a world with serious problems that
could be addressed, we have the resources and
the means, but we refuse to make them priorities.
What we spend on combat operations for one
week could feed all of Africa for a year; what we
spend in one month could pay for every college-
aged person on the planet to get a bachelor’s
degree.
So, what has the return on investing in vio
lence been anyway, and are we ever going to
actually talk about it?
Wim Laven is an adjunct instructor o f Conflict
Resolution at Portland State University.