Monicas Cup

The Effects of War

War has been a factor in man’s life almost from the beginning of time. Almost every day a new war starts, or an old one is intensified. In this century alone we have experienced World War I and World War II, the gulf war, the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war. And with each war the devastation gets worst and the effects of the war on people and the environment gets worst. Monty G. Marshall points out that most of the victims of war are those who are impacted by its effect both directly and indirectly, he continues, “A simple accounting of the dead trivializes and distorts war’s impact on societal-systems, violates statistical assumptions, and does a grave injustice to the full, humanistic analysis of war.” (Marshall, 2002) In fact, Dr. Barbara Van Dahlen points out that “war affects everyone who experienced it” (Dahlen) the impact of war is not just confined to people but it also impacts the environment. Green Cross an environmental group did a study in Kuwait and found ,after seven years, that the gulf war continued to impact the environment and could still cause problems to Kuwait’s fresh water. Based on the evidence above it would be safe to say that war has an adverse effect on humans. War affects humans in many ways but I would discuss only three of those ways: they are physical, mental and environmental.

The physical injuries of war can be many and varied. They are also not exclusive to soldiers because many civilians including women and children are also injured or lose their lives. Lucinda Marshall, a feminist, says sex has been used as a weapon of war against women, contributing to their being raped, becoming pregnant or even contracting infectious diseases such as HIV and aids. Similarly, thinkquest.org reports that many children are forced to become child soldiers and they are often mistreated. Many of them die because of starvation and disease, many of these children are exposed to infectious diseases because they are raped or...