I know this kinda sounds like a no-brainer to some of us but this article in the American Journal of Public Health is actually the product of a whole bushel of brains.
The Role of Public Health in the Prevention of War: Rationale and Competencies
William H. Wiist, DHSc, MPH, MS, Kathy Barker, PhD, Neil Arya, MD, Jon Rohde, MD, Martin Donohoe, MD, Shelley White, PhD, MPH, Pauline Lubens, MPH, Geraldine Gorman, RN, PhD, and Amy Hagopian, PhD
At the time of writing, William H. Wiist was with the Interdisciplinary Health Policy Institute at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. Kathy Barker is with Washington Truth in Recruiting, Seattle. Neil Arya is with Office of Global Health, University of Western Ontario; Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo; and Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Jon Rohde is retired. Martin Donohoe is with the School of Community Health, Portland State University, Portland, OR. Shelley White is with the Department of Health Sciences Worcester State University, Worcester, MA. Pauline Lubens is with the MPH Program in Public Health, University of California, Irvine. Geraldine Gorman is with the College of Nursing, University of Illinois, Chicago. Amy Hagopian is with the Department of Global Health, University of Washington School of Public Health, Seattle.
Unfortunately the full text of the article is behind a paywall but stunormous thanks(!) to David Swanson over at
firedoglake for posting some excerpts and insightful commentary:
Public Health Experts Identify Militarism as Threat
I guess the cat is well and truly out of the bag now! I mean who'd a thunk it? War, just like sugar or tobacco, is bad for you. (Where do you put the warning label?) Follow me down the swirling cesspool for a quick peek at some of the naked facts and figures.
Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq. During the 20th century, 190 million deaths could be directly and indirectly related to war — more than in the previous 4 centuries.
These facts, footnoted in the article, are more useful than ever in the face of the current academic trend in the United States of proclaiming the death of war. By re-categorizing many wars as other things, minimizing death counts, and viewing deaths as proportions of the global population rather than of a local population or as absolute numbers, various authors have tried to claim that war is vanishing. Of course, war could and should vanish, but that is only likely to happen if we find the drive and the resources to make it happen.
The proportion of civilian deaths and the methods for classifying deaths as civilian are debated, but civilian war deaths constitute 85% to 90% of casualties caused by war, with about 10 civilians dying for every combatant killed in battle. The death toll (mostly civilian) resulting from the recent war in Iraq is contested, with estimates of 124,000 to 655,000 to more than
a million, and finally most recently settling on roughly a half million. Civilians have been targeted for death and for sexual violence in some contemporary conflicts. Seventy percent to 90% of the victims of the 110 million landmines planted since 1960 in 70 countries were civilians.
Yeah, when you put it like that it does look pretty bad.
The voice of public health is often heard as a force for public good.
Through regular collection and review of health indicators public health can provide early warnings of the risk for violent conflict. Public health can also describe the health effects of war, frame the discussion about wars and their funding . . . and expose the militarism that often leads to armed conflict and incites public fervor for war.
Militarism?
Militarism is the deliberate extension of military objectives and rationale into shaping the culture, politics, and economics of civilian life so that war and the preparation for war is normalized, and the development and maintenance of strong military institutions is prioritized.
So really, all we need to do is get our elected officials to care about public health. Hey, it could happen.