Elaine Weaver
Schroeder
English 1304.14 If someone were to take out a timeline of the world and pick out any point in time, there would be a very likely chance that any point they pick had some war tied to it. The devastating effects of war can be felt through any era of time for any generation of people; effects such as death of loved ones that went in for battle, or a country whose economy is straining to keep up with the costly demands of war. So in any case, war is unjust for the people because lives are always lost and wars, especially long ones, can be expensive. A known characteristic of war is that lives will be lost in the fight. Yes, the people that go in to battle know they may lose their life for the sake of their country and their beliefs, but I do not think it is just for these people to go in and fight when countries merely have disagreements that result in war. I say this because in 2002, “the Bush Administration accused North Korea of secretly working to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU) for weapons” (Richard Rhodes, page 639). That accusation led to a chain of events that almost led to the start of another war. At this time, the United States was already overseas in another war, so to almost cause a second one would not only have been catastrophic for the lives of those on duty and the families they are from, but it would have also caused even greater money troubles for the U.S. Also, within our current war on terror, (which has lasted since 2001) the amount of casualties that have been recorded are well into the thousands (icasualties.org). The lives that we lost are not sad just for the sake of them dying, but also for all the families that all these people had to leave behind. It is unjust that so many people have to die for the battles, issues, and ideals held by those in political power before someone has to sit back and start fixing things. The cost of war is expensive, but it is not only limited to what the tax-payer puts in. As discussed before, the amount of casualties has always been high, but the amount that the military spends on getting new recruits can be seen as even higher. In recent years, the military has spent millions on recruiting tactics that target a younger audience, mostly students in high school or college. They seize information through tests and websites spending thousands at a time to get such valuable information as the students’ “email address, Social Security