Donald Trump Should Embrace the Economic Benefits of Peace

Doug Bandow

Security, Americas

He should start his presidency by insisting on no more stupid wars.

President-elect Donald Trump appears focused on domestic policy. He wants to rebuild infrastructure, cut taxes, reduce imports, save jobs, streamline regulation and more. While he seems to have strong views on international issues, he seems to lack “nuance.” He won’t be able to escape foreign controversies, but he could avoid creating his own.

He should follow one overriding principle: stay out of war.

George W. Bush thought differently. Unfortunately, his two conflicts are the gifts that keep on giving—disastrously. The Afghanistan war was necessary, but only its initial phase, targeting Al Qaeda and ousting the Taliban. The following fourteen-plus years of quixotic nation building were a tragic diversion. The invasion of Iraq, with no connection to 9/11 and posing no threat to America, was foolish from the start.

In these two conflicts, Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs estimates, almost 6,900 American military personnel have died and another fifty-two thousand have been wounded. Even more U.S. contractors, nearly 7,100, have been killed. Tens of thousands more have been injured. Thousands of allied military personnel and foreign contractors also have become casualties.

These numbers understate the human cost. Many of those wounded suffered, and still suffer, grievously. They would have died in earlier wars and will endure crippling injuries for the rest of their lives. Wrote Neta Crawford of Boston University, “The veterans of these wars suffer from skeletal injury, PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury at rates higher than the veterans of other wars.”

Moreover, hundreds of thousands of civilians have died in the sectarian conflict unleashed by the U.S. invasion in Iraq: estimates start around two hundred thousand and race upward. More than thirty thousand have died in the Afghan war. American drone strikes in Pakistan have killed more than 1,400 civilians. Thousands more civilians have died in Pakistani military operations supported by America. An estimated 7.6 million Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis have been displaced at home or turned into refugees overseas.