War is not Beneficial to the World - Term Paper Example

 «War is not beneficial to the world» Introduction Ever since the advent of human beings they have always had wars between themselves for various reasons. These wars to some point ended up leading to hatred between the fighting groups, loss of property and eventually death. Proponents of war argue it is beneficial while the opponents believe as human beings should not engage in war amongst themselves as it not beneficial to the world because it ends up causing more harm than good. Human beings do not have to necessarily fight to solve their conflicts. In essence, there are various viable avenues that can be used to means of solve the conflicts. These avenues may include use of peace talks and negotiations. Wars end up causing more tribulations than they are perceived to solve (Dixon and Holme 89). This is mostly indicated from the facts that wars inhibit human beings from working together to solve real problems facing them all over the world. Moreover, wars end up marginalizing and hurting mostly innocent civilians, with the most vulnerable ones being women and children. This is evidently so from what has hit the world economically as a result of the war between Iraq and Afghanistan war. The relationship between the United States and the afghan and Iraqi people has deteriorated. In essence, war in Iraq and Afghanistan was liable for the economic deterioration of the states not to mention the hardship that people living in these places have to go through such as lack of food, shelter, and education. This put the lives of people within the given areas in fear since they are not sure of when disaster /disasters strike. Contrary to beliefs that human beings should not fight each other, there are individuals who have vested interests and used war as a scapegoat to achieve their personal gains. These interests might take the form of resources owned by certain nations. Due to greed, some nations have invaded other nations through war in a bid to embezzle resources from the said countries. Further, it argues that human beings fight each other for revenge purposes, that is, to avenge perceived insults or defeat. The fact that human beings would always want to feel superior over others and thus through war, they are able to prove their superiority. Human beings do fight when they perceive threats from others or chances of losing. It is also argued that war is a natural population control, however, unpleasant, it acts to ease competition for resources, and reduce population. In light of war being a natural control for unhealthy large population, there are other ways to curb the growth. War is inevitable, this is evident from the fact that, over the years, the number of wars has reduced gradually, with regard to first war and the second; also the casualties of war or violence have reduced with time (Tomsen 532). There has been a significant drop in the number of deaths resulting from wars. This may be attributed to a surge in the number of democracies, 20 to nearly all the countries since the Second World War. Since democracies, rarely wage war against each other, a continuing decline in the magnitude of armed conflicts may as well be seen. Decline of war may as well be credited to the creation of stable states having effective legal systems, and police forces, which eliminates the endless feuding that plagued tribal societies. Increased life expectancy makes people less willing to risk their lives by engaging in violence. Also as a result of globalization and communication, people have ended up being interdependent on each other. On the other hand, war may not be inevitable this is because human beings have always fought in wars and always will due to the fact that human beings are innately aggressive. This is demonstrated from the advent of humanity as human beings have always fought against themselves. These wars have manifested through the world wars, for instance, first and second world war which saw nearly the whole world fighting, nation fighting against nation. Israel’s constant fighting with Palestine also portrays the picture that human beings will always fight as war has been on for ages. Also, there is the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, which came about when the United States invaded the countries. This war is also evidence that human beings will always fight as war cannot be avoided. In his article, McGurk argues that, the United States running security strategy has two models to choose from in relation to the war in Iraq which are: the adversarial model, and the consensus model. Adversarial model was Obama’s earlier policy review, but over time the model has changed to consensus model, which is viewed as befitting his presidency. The adversarial model required the president’s principals, the secretary of state, the defense secretary, the national security advisor, and others to develop specific policy options (Great Britain 120). The adversarial model would result in winners and losers, these would make it susceptible to leaks due to the fact that losers would seek to re-litigate issues or better still, use the press to vindicate their positions. The leaks can lead to spooking of United States allies and bolstering of their enemies, making execution of the policy harder. On the other hand, adversarial process sharpens thinking and ends up crystallizing debates. Under the consensus based model, the president’s most trusted advisors work to bring the United States government to a policy that the president will support. This process ends up risking masking differences, which eventually leads to surprises when it comes to policy execution. Consensus based reviews ends up making sure all key departments and agencies invest in the policy, this may be vital when it comes to actual execution of the policy(Wessells 225). The Obama’s administration chose to change tactics from the adversarial method to the consensus method in relation to the war in Afghanistan due to the fact that there were leaks and conflicting stands on policies within the administration. This being considered as his incoming in office and wasn’t that conversant with the policies to take regarding the war (Zinni et al 270). The consensus model became a far more reliable method compared to the adversarial due to the fact that Obama had gained experience in managing war policies, and had a clear sense of what he wanted (Spruyt 30). Also due to the fact that he could balance conflicting pressure military, economic and political. Additionally, consensus based model, included Karzai, the president of Afghanistan whose input was far much important than the policy debate in Washington, which was one sided and often of less importance. The war in Afghanistan happens to be the first major conflict in the 21st century. The recent war began in October 2001 after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States (Fiscus 56). The United States sent its troops into Afghanistan to fight the al-Qaeda and the Taliban who are said to have facilitated the terror attacks in the United States. These war has required pumping in of soldiers into Afghanistan by the United States, which has been costly in terms of both monetary and manpower. Essentially, the war has also strained the ties between the United States, and the Afghanistan nation. The United States demanded that the Taliban hands over Bin Laden. The Taliban wanted evidence of Bin laden’s responsibility, they refused to hand him over based on the fact that the United States did not come up with enough evidence to support their allegations (Tanielian 28). The United States began bombing Afghanistan, providing support to the northern alliance warlords. After weeks of bombing, failed offensives, the alliance from the north broke out of its northern enclave and started seizing cities. In response to this, the Talibans retreated to the mountains, thousands of people were killed by the bombs and the fighting between the Taliban warlords, and the Northern Alliance. After nearly a decade of fighting, the Obama administration were willing to end the war and stop increasing the number of troops to Afghanistan and instead focus on reducing the troops still in Afghanistan until all the soldiers were back home. This withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan will help rebuild the relationship between the states and Afghanistan as most Afghanistan people feel that the less they see the American soldiers the less they will dislike the United States (Wessells 223) In his book, Invading Afghanistan, then and now, John Blank he brings up the fact that political systems or ideologies imposed by an outside power on Afghanistan is bound to fail, and any attempts to coax political changes from within Afghanistan must be grounded in deep knowledge of their customs and culture (Tomsen 526). The relationship between Pakistan and the United States has soared over time, this may have been attributed to NATO airstrikes that killed around two dozen Pakistani soldiers, an increase in the drone attacks, clandestine killing of two Pakistanis by the CIA and the raid that killed Osama bin laden. The NATO strike that killed around 24 Pakistani soldiers led to Pakistan cutting the NATO supply line to Afghanistan that did pass through Pakistan. Also, the incident that saw the burning of the Koran by the American soldiers and killing of 17 people caused rage among the Islam community, eliciting sharp, unpleasant reaction towards the Americans by the president of Pakistan, this incident ended up soaring the relationship between the United States and the Pakistan government. The raid that ended up killing Osama bin Laden also aggravated the situation between the United States and the Pakistan government. In essence, the Pakistan government claimed the United States impinged on Pakistan’s sovereignty by invading their territory and carrying out the attack (Great Britain 118). The Pakistan government is also enraged by the fact that the United States held clandestine talks with the Taliban in the Middle East without its knowledge as it is the country that the Taliban groups reside. If anything, the use of drones by the Americans which ended up killing innocent civilians did not have much impact in grooming the relationship. In light of all this, relationship between Pakistan and America might change for the better. This may be seen from the fact that several meetings were held between the American officials, and their Pakistan counter parts, which was aimed at trying to salvage the broken relationship. Moreover, the fact that the Pakistan parliament had plans to review their relationship with the United States proves that the Pakistanis are preparing to face the Americans. On the other hand, the relationship between Afghanistan and the Americans has not been a good one either, this may be attributed to the fact that the United States invaded them and started fighting their people on grounds of terrorism (Tanielian 19). The burning of the Koran by the American soldiers and subsequent killing of 17 civilians sparked an outrage by the Afghanistan people, and the president who ended up insulting the Americans. This event led to the Afghans putting demands on the United States. The Afghanistans’ wanted the United States to stop its night raids on the so called Taliban who sometimes happen to be innocent people, and instead wanted the Afghan Special Forces to do the work (Spruyt 30). Further, the Afghan government demanded that the Pakistan government release the Taliban leaders that it was holding and wanted the United States to pressure the Pakistan’s to comply. More demands included the release of Afghans prisoners who had been held by the United States. After the stalemate between the two countries and the fighting, their relationship would be mended if the United States pulled out all its forces from Afghan and let Afghan rule themselves. After more than a decade of fighting in Afghanistan, the war is finally coming to an end (Sinno 277). The end has been attributed to the fact that the Americans managed to kill Osama who was viewed as terrorist and also by the fact that they were also facing losses in terms of human deaths. The war in afghan led to a lot of casualties being recorded. This is both to the United States government and within Afghanistan. Fighting in Afghanistan culminated to loss of lives by many soldiers who have suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, have ended up committing suicide while some of the women were sexually harassed. The month of July 2012 saw a high number of suicide cases in the military. It is believed thirty eight troops, twenty six active duty soldiers and twelve National Guard committed suicide in July (Zinni et al 266). It is believed eighteen veterans do commit suicide each day. Around twenty to fifty percent of individuals being deployed in Afghanistan had began to suffer from post traumatic order such as stress, military assault, brain injury among other disorders. About a third of women serving in the military are sexually assaulted. In 2012, 154 soldiers committed suicide in 155 days, this may be due to the fact that the soldiers ended up watching their buddies die day after day, and this ended up working to destroy the membrane between life and death. The war in Afghanistan has led to a situation where important aspects like education, housing and health are taking a back seat. The cost of the war has contributed to a high level of unemployment and the current recession being faced by the United States Great Britain and Parliament 130. In the event the military spending was moved to health care or education, it would result in generation of more than twice as many jobs. A research by the University of Massachusetts political economy research institute found that, for every twelve jobs created by military spending, twenty nine jobs would subsequently be created in education alone. Conclusion The war on Afghanistan and Iraq has cost the United States a lot of money which amounts to trillions of dollars. Money which would have otherwise been used to do beneficial works like building of bridges, roads, schools, medical facilities, laboratories and creating employment or basically improving the economic life of the countries concerned. Some of the monies that were channeled to the war in Afghanistan ended up being embezzled and diverted from the intended purpose. One billion dollars that was supposed to be used in the supply of fuel to Afghanistan military camps ended up disappearing and could not be accounted for. Although the war on Afghanistan took a lot of money, it is finally ending as the United States military plan to be completely out of Afghanistan by 2014. After considering all the losses in terms of lives, money and destruction of property due to war, it is thus clear that war is not beneficial to the world and should be avoided at all costs as its effects are devastating. Works cited: Dixon, Norm and Holme, Dave. Behind the US war on Afghanistan. Chippendale, N.S.W: Resistance.2001.Print. Fiscus, James. America's war in Afghanistan. New York: Rosen Pub. Group. 2004. Print. Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons. The UK's foreign policy approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan: fourth report of session 2010-11.London: TSO. 2011. Print. Great Britain Parliament, House of Commons. Global security: Afghanistan and Pakistan: eighth report of session 2008-09: report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. London: Stationery Office. 2009. Print. Sinno, Abdulkader. Organizations at war in Afghanistan and beyond. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2008. Print. Spruyt, Hendrik.Global horizons: an introduction to international relation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.2009.Print. Tanielian, Terri et al.Invisible wounds of war: psychological and cognitive injuries, their consequences, and services to assist recovery. Santa Monica, CA: RAND. 2008. Print. Tomsen, Peter.The wars of Afghanistan: messianic terrorism, tribal conflicts, and the failures of great powers. New York: PublicAffairs.2011.Print. Wessells, Michael. A world turned upside down: social ecological approaches to children in war zones. Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.2006.Print. Zinni, Anthony et al. The encyclopedia of Middle East wars: the United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq conflicts.Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. 2010. Print. Read More