Chapter 156
The pursuit of happiness requires that we work for peace,
because peace and happiness are not separable.
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Rogue Valley Veterans For Peace
Chapter 156
The pursuit of happiness requires that we work for peace, because peace and happiness are not separable. |
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The Costs of War NEW: In approximately the last century, the American public has been exposed to a perception management situation concerning the "glamor" of battle and of war, without regard to consideration of ALL the costs of war. This '.pdf' shows what U.S. taxpayers are supporting compared to other countries in the world. From the National Priorities Project (details), taxpayers in Rogue Valley, OR (Jackson and Josephine Counties), up to July 27, 2010, have paid $540.1 million, total, for the Iraq and Afghanistan war spending since 2001, and are continuing to pay. For the same amount of money, to that date, the following could have been provided: 129,169 People Receiving Low-Income Healthcare for One Year OR Yet, these figures are only addressing the first two categories (A1 and A2) of the list below.
So, what are these Costs of War? Considering that the overwhelming casualities of war are civilians, war is the wrong answer.
"Instead of romanticizing militarism, it might be time for a more realistic look at the underlying motivations and horrible consequences of war." Tedi Elliott, writing for The Bleeping Herald, Vol. 4 Issue 2, June, 2008 (http://www.bleepingherald.com/jun2008/addicted-to-war). This Chapter wholeheartedly agrees, and is listing some hard-hitting resources, below, along this line:
CHART: Military casualties suffered by the
NEW: This report lists 234 instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of conflict, or potential conflict, or for other than normal peacetime purposes (there is redundancy with the chart below). This is a "sanitized" version for Congress and doesn't address the commercial interests that were behind the vast majority of these actions, nor does it address clandestine activities such as the CIA has engaged in to engender the term "blowback," (see booklist above for a title by that name).
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"Warfare is a form of communication, a primitive signaling strategy used to resolve disagreements - usually between peoples who speak different languages or think in incompatible ideological modes. It is expensive and notoriously inefficient." The Third Millennium, Ken Carey, Harper, 1995, p.113 |
(1) Historically, we have thought of those wounded in war as physical wounds. However, through history, and it is becoming far better known about today, we also have those wounds of the psyche and the soul that translate to "psychological problems"... situations where there are no visible physical impairments, but render the warrior every bit as disabled and often unable to cope with work and/or society.
(2) From "Costs of Major U.S. Wars," Stephen Daggett, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, July 24, 2008
(3) All estimates are of the costs of military operations only and do not reflect costs of veterans benefits, interest on war-related debt, assistance to allies, etc., etc.
(4) Figures are in Current Year $, Constant FY2008$
(5) Per Wikipedia, all figures from the Revolutionary War are rounded estimates. Commonly cited casualty figures provided by the Department of Defense (VA) are 4,435 killed and 6,188 wounded, although the original government report that generated these numbers warned that the totals were incomplete and far too low. Nevertheless, the numbers are often repeated without this warning, such as on the United States Department of Veteran Affairs website. In 1974, historian Howard Peckham and a team of researchers came up with a total of 6,824 killed in action and 8,445 wounded. Because of incomplete records, Peckham estimated that this new total number of killed in action was still about 1,000 too low. Military historian John Shy subsequently estimated the total killed in action at 8,000, and argued that the number of wounded was probably far higher, about 25,000. The "other" deaths are primarily from disease, including prisoners who died on British prison ships.
(6) President McKinley told the American people that the USS Maine had been sunk in Havana Harbor by a Spanish mine. The American people, outraged by this apparent unprovoked attack, supported the Spanish American War. The Captain of the USS Maine had insisted the ship was sunk by a coal bin explosion, investigations after the war proved that such had indeed been the case. There had been no mine. Ref.: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/lieofthecentury.html.
(7) FDR claimed Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack. It wasn't. The United States saw war with Japan as the means to get into war with Germany, which Americans opposed. So Roosevelt needed Japan to appear to strike first. Following an 8-step plan devised by the Office of Naval Intelligence, Roosevelt intentionally provoked Japan into the attack. Contrary to the official story, the fleet did not maintain radio silence, but sent messages intercepted and decoded by US intercept stations. Tricked by the lie of a surprise attack, Americans marched off to war. Ref.: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/lieofthecentury.html AND http://www.independent.org/events/transcript.asp?eventID=28, in which "Day Of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor" is discussed by the author, Robert Stinnett.
(8) After-the-fact revelations about the rationale for the Vietnam War http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf of Tonkin Incident
President Johnson lied about the Gulf of Tonkin to send Americans off to fight in Vietnam. The "second torpedo attack" that was the "cause celib" for the Vietnam War never took place, because the first such attack destroyed and disabled the only such armament that N. Vietnam had available. There were no torpedoes in the water in the Gulf. LBJ took advantage of an inexperienced sonar man's report to goad Congress into escalating the Vietnam War. Ref.: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/lieofthecentury.html.
(9) More fabrications, per http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1008-08.htm.
(10) The obvious lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after the Second Gulf War shows how our own presidents have duped the American public into needless and completely unnecessary conflicts... using our military long before any of the pertinent facts had been established and a diplomatic process allowed to run its course... thereby resulting in heavy costs to the U.S. Additionally, the complete mismanagement of our "nation-building" efforts in Iraq following "Mission Accomplished," provides a whole textbook of examples of what NOT to do in attempting the reconstruction of a country. Ref.: http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/lieofthecentury.html.
There are a surprising number of other websites that are tracking various aspects of war. Some examples:
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/Go to top
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
http://icasualties.org/oif/BY_DOD.aspx
http://www.americanfamilytraditions.com/war_casualties.htm
http://www.taphilo.com/history/war-deaths.shtml
http://aad.archives.gov/aad/
http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/casualties_of_war.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_disasters_by_death_toll
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