War is the Last Resort of Resolving Disputes - Essay Example

These include protecting American citizens and interests from foreign aggression, liberating people from oppressive regimes, promoting democracy and human rights especially in autocratic countries in addition to protecting the American society from the adverse effects of drug abuse (Zycher 74-76). In spite of the vast resources invested in the wars and heavy loss of human lives, United States still remains under imminent threats of terror attacks and abuse of human rights is rampant at both local and international levels.

Currently, United States military is at war in Afghanistan and Iraq. These wars have been ongoing for about ten years and the targeted countries are yet to attain political and economic stability. However, the numbers of the American soldiers and civilians killed and wounded in the conflicts are increasing. According to The Washington Post, 4,474 and 2,038 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively up to date since the emergence of the conflicts. In addition 33,184 servicemen have been wounded in Iraq alone.

However, the number of wounded servicemen does not include those suffering from psychological problems such as post traumatic disorder. Over 6,440 service members have lost their lives in both “operation Iraqi freedom” and “operation enduring freedom” in Afghanistan (The Washington Post). . At the beginning of the “operation enduring freedom” in 2001, United States lost 12 service members in that year (icasualties.org). However, in 2010 alone, 499 service members were killed and an additional 418 the following year in 2011 (icasualties.org). Afghanistan has been experiencing some of the worst forms of violence for the last several years in form of suicide bombing, improvised explosive devices and resurgence of the Taliban rule.

Therefore, it is apparent that the wars have made the world more insecure than before considering the number of service members and civilians killed in the conflicts. The war in America is costly to the United States, the targeted country and the global economy. According to Gholz (35), wars interrupt international trade, which result to reduction of global wealth. Gholz indentified four mechanisms through which wars interrupt global economic growth and development. The first way is interruption of trade between the targeted country and its existing trading partners in the world.

This was evidenced in Iraq, where the United States invasion disrupted oil production and trade in the country. Secondly war could interfere with trade between countries not involved in the conflict. This could occur as a result of increasing the cost of doing business due to disruption of oil production and high insecurity (37-41).Gold estimated that 20 to 40 percent increase of the oil price in global markets since 2003 was caused by anticipated decline of oil production in Iraq after the American military invasion(7).

Wars interrupt capital flow and foreign direct investment especially in the targeted country because of the increased risks of