As part of this so-called “War on Terror”, which has wrought many times more terror than the initial attack ever came close to as highlighted by the terrifying level of institutionalized violence towards our fellow humans, nearly a million of us lost our life via violence directly related to the US military involvement (including the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq in addition to all of the military operations carried out in over 80 different countries) which doesn’t even account for all of the myriad consequences that emerge from misallocating 8 trillion dollars, or the ecological devastation done by the US military which is the single largest polluter of petroleum in the world, or the pernicious psychological repercussions from the fallout of all the trauma that results from the terror of war which permeates societies for generations like a cultural virus. As evidence of the psycho-social aftermath, many times more people that live in the region of our planet that we currently refer to as the United States and were involved in the war died deaths of despair than did dying in combat, just as was the case in Vietnam, which doesn’t even touch on the widespread PTSD and other mental health problems ensuing from the terrorizing effects of being immersed in let alone actively involved in the terror of war, the atrocity of our inhumanity towards one another. “War is hell” after all, and the history of war is a poignant reminder that the road to hell is paved with good intentions (albeit uninformed, misinformed, unreasonable, irrational, or some combination thereof, in other words fundamentally misguided), reminding us of the value of virtue in general and the importance of situating wisdom in particular at the center of all of our decision-making, the foundation of all that we do. Considering that war is borne in the minds of men, our efforts are rendered most effective by focusing on fostering the conditions conducive to us growing up and moving beyond the childish ways of war which entails developing understanding, of the folly of war in particular, and more generally the utter foolishness of letting fear dictate our behavior and use us as devices of violence and avarice, as instruments of inhumanity. To the extent to which we cower and conform to the dictates of fear, we are acting as conduits of suffering, for all suffering not transformed is suffering transmitted. The results of fear running rampant is the ravaging of our minds and bodies, and the consequences of institutionalizing fear in the form of the international military-industrial complex is state-sanctioned sadism that leaves much of the world shrouded in the savagery of war. This is dishearteningly exemplified by the nearly one million of our fellow human beings who were denied the right to live, deprived of the ability to continue living, many of whom were bystanders or civilians wanting no part in this war and yet nonetheless were victimized by a war of wanton violence and reckless disregard for the sanctity of human life, let alone life in general.
So aside from the obvious question begged by all of this atrocity – namely, how do we best help one another learn to be less reactionary, vengeful, short-sighted, and nationalistic (or to take a more positive approach which is the more effective method, how do we bring the best out of one another and help each other bring as much joy to the journey for all as we can) in our thinking and feeling, our perspective and sentiment, our worldview and ethos, our way of being and relating – the question remains as to how many lives could have been saved if that eight trillion dollars was allocated towards whatever humanitarian causes would yield the greatest return of investment in terms of lives saved (even though ultimately I think we are infinitely better off focusing on quality of life over quantity, but that’s another story). So for the sake of adding to our understanding of the total cost of the military-industrial complex’s misguided endeavors, let us consider the trade-offs made by choosing to prioritize all of our resources for such an ill-advised and ill-fated approach as beginning from a place of fear and othering (us and them) leading to xenophobia and antagonism (us vs them) and mistakenly trying to terminate (resorting to physical violence rather than wisely seeking to transform) the perpetrators and purveyors of problematic patterns of behavior. Lastly, let us consider the strategy of coming from a place of common humanity wherein we predicate all we do on understanding the fundamental processes at play and proceed in a way consonant with the causal forces in play (which ultimately is the universal will to be well that permeates every permutation) so that we may cultivate the conditions intra- and inter- personally that are optimally conducive to the well-being of all.
The answer to this question of how many lives could have been saved if we used the money for humanitarian purposes (instead of enacting and perpetuating a war spanning over twenty years and embroiling over eighty countries, costing eight trillion dollars and counting, leaving in its trail a death toll approaching one million of our fellow humans who died a violent death and continue to fall to this fate, falling victim to man’s inhumanity to man) is 3,478,260,870. That is almost 3 and a half billion lives. Pretty sure that is way more people than the total number that have died from so-called preventable causes in that timeframe. Another way to look at it, in terms of life-years saved, is that we could have given ourselves an additional 266,666,667,000 years of life to enjoy, that is nearly 267 billion years that we would have lived instead of having allowed to perish all those of us that died prematurely (in that it could have been prevented). Yet another metric of the misguidedness of this war of terror is that we could have given the gift of vision to 160,000,000,000 people unable to see adequately or at all (people who are experiencing blindness). Obviously all of these figures surpass the actual number of humans that are in need of such humanitarian assistance in each instance. It seems we could reasonably surmise that every single humanitarian crisis, and potentially every humanitarian cause in general, that plagues humankind and our planet, could have been resolved if we allocated our resources responsibly, in accordance with our values.
Acting in accordance with our values, walking the talk, so to speak, in terms of how we allocate our resources (attention and intention and all the means thereof), will give way to a world that works for all wherein we all come together in beloved community ensuring everyone has an equitable opportunity to lead healthy and happy lives, by lovingly and communally ensuring everyone’s basic needs are met (clean air and water, holistically healthy food, adequate refuge, and above all, on the whole, love), affirming that we’re all in this together and that we’re way better off having one another’s back, orienting around the ethos of one for all and all for one, remembering that this land was made for you and me, that ultimately everything belongs to everyone, that essentially we all belong to one another, and it is in keeping this in mind and acting accordingly that is in our best interest in that it is the way we enjoy the journey to the utmost, by letting love lead the way as love is the heart of happiness, and only unconditional love leads to unconditional happiness.
Sources:
The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University:
“Costs of the 20-year war on terror: $8 trillion and 900,000 deaths“
“20 Years Of War: A Cost Of Wars Research Series” (Full Paper)
The Life You Can Save:
“How Much Are We Willing to Spend to Save a Life?“
Common Dreams:
“Cost of Post-9/11 US Wars Hits $8 Trillion With Nearly a Million People Dead“
The Guardian:
“Lives lost, poverty, an arms race, rights destroyed … the continuing cost“
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