Afgan father with child at war

Today I received a copy of a study of the cost of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The study is by the nonpartisan Eisenhower Research Project based at Brown University’s. They claim the three wars have cost us up to four trillion dollars and 225, 000 killed, around 6000 U.S. soldiers.

The money spent on war is important since these wars are the first ones in our history that we are not paying for. We are borrowing money for these wars and thus our national debt crisis. This report on the financial cost of war should be part of the debate how to reduce our debt. The authors of the study rightfully claim the financial cost of the war should be part of our present debate on budgets and debt.

The other cost of these three wars, in my opinion is more commanding, the 225, 000 killed. Would these countries, USA, and our allies lost as many human beings if we had not gone to war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, I doubt it.
At a talk by Kathy Kelly a few months ago about the war in Afghanistan a man got up and talked how he had been a soldier, graduate of West Point, but over the years had become a pacifist. When his son became 18, he talked to him about the horrors of war the courage of being a pacifist. His son went to college but after graduation could not find a job. A military recruiter told him he could pay his present debts for college and get money to go back to graduate school if he joined the military. He did and soon will be assigned to the war zone.

The Father has written a number of letters to editors of newspapers about his stance on war and his experiences of his son going to war. These letters are powerful and we have put some of them are the nonviolent cow at Father at War. He is a Father at War trying to save lives of those in war, including this Father’s son.

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