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The war on ____.<\/p>\nThe war on ____.<\/p>\n
Insert any of the following nouns, and you get a common American phrase.<\/p>\n
Terror. Drugs. Crime. Poverty. Christmas.<\/p>\n
Declaring \u201cwar\u201d on things reduces the horrors of armed conflict, said Christopher Coyne, professor of economics at George Mason University<\/p>\n
\u201cWar, killing other human beings, is perhaps the ugliest act that can be undertaken,\u201d and is the \u201cgreatest threat to human well-being and human liberty there is,\u201d said Coyne, kicking off the 2022 Burkett Miller Distinguished Lecture Series at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.<\/p>\n
The mainstreaming of the word \u201cwar\u201d negates its meaning, he said, and contributes to the general public either being unaware of government-led military action abroad\u2014and the foreign policy that shapes it\u2014or being supportive without critically examining the costs. The death. The massive spending. The toll on combat veterans.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe uncaring person sends troops abroad, sends them into harm’s way without critically engaging in a thought process of what can and cannot be accomplished,\u201d said Coyne, whose lecture at the University Center Auditorium boiled down to asking the audience to consider the \u201creturn on investment\u201d in war.<\/p>\n
Coyne is the author of \u201cAfter War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy,\u201d \u201cDoing Bad by Doing Good: Why Humanitarian Action Fails\u201d and \u201cTyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of Militarism.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cGlobal War on Terror\u201d\u2014a military campaign coined by the American government after the 9\/11 attacks\u2014underpinned the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but has only created more terrorism after years of fighting and nation-building efforts, Coyne said.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, many of the ways in which the U.S. has waged war have been deceitful by design, not only to the American public but to the world, he said, pointing to \u201cblack sites\u201d as an example.<\/p>\n
Black sites were secret prisons controlled by the CIA in foreign countries where the Geneva Conventions\u2014rules of warfare upheld by certain countries around the world\u2014did not apply. Authorities were able to interrogate combatants using psychological torture techniques, he said.<\/p>\n
Even when such harsh and illegal methods yielded high-value information, \u201cYou have to think about what it means when you adopt these techniques as a way to treat other people and what you are giving up in terms of the fundamental values that you purport to advance,\u201d Coyne said.<\/p>\n