The Impacts of War Globally

War can be defined as a state of hostility between two nations or between

among groups of nations, that has developed into a major arms conflict (Oxford

Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,2005). If the war is between two nations, the

impacts maybe localized. On the other hand, if the involves groups of nations,

the impacts maybe felt at a regional or even at global level. For instance, the

First and Second World Wars and the war in Indo-China. War has been proven

to cause untold miseries to humankinds and the world at large. The impacts of

war have affected people globally in the areas of economic, environment and

social.

The occurrence of war caused the affected country to suffer economic

malaise. During the First World War, there has been industrialization paralysis in

Germany. The former communist country’s production from 1914-1918

decreased significantly to 40%. This is due to the shortage of manpower to

handle machinery professionally as large percentage of Germany’s working-age

men served their country or died during the war raid. Perhaps, there are even

some of the factory workers seek refuge in neighbouring countries. Moreover,

there has been malnutrition among workers as a result of food shortages

(Erin Hubbard, 2009). The workforce was not physically fit enough to work hard

as food shortages had been so bad due to price controls. According to Henry

Wallich, who is a former economist from Yale University, in his book written in

1955, Mainsprings of the German Revival, said the Germans had hard time to
get foods. Most of them have to work very hard to get some food like bartering

food from the farmers who lived farther away from them. They usually bartered

their possessions like old clothes and money in exchange to foods (Henderson,

2008). Thus, the country experienced Balance of Payment; it is when trade

activities during the war have been disrupted as level of exports lower than level

of imports caused the decreasing of National Income as the flowing out of money

of the country is greater than the flowing in of money of the country. If the war

drags for a long period of time, the economic growth of war torn country can be

halted. The Soviet Union having a hard time during the war economically. The

country Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is lower than in Germany,

Britain or the United States despite of having large territory and population.

Generally, GDP is the new national income parameter generated in an economy

in a given period of time. Therefore, although Russia have been dragged for a

long period of time in wars and won, their economy suffer badly as most of their

economic resources have been channelled to fight the war, thus reducing the

resources for development purpose like the development of technology,

transportation and administrative service infrastructure.

 Besides that, war has caused the destruction of natural and man-made

environments. The application of technologically-engineered weapon has caused

the destruction of natural environments. For example, during the Vietnam War

(1962-1973) The American troops had used Agent Orange and about 72 million

litres of herbicidal chemical like defoliants in its military campaign (Enzler,2006).

They sprayed the chemical throughout the southern of Vietnam. It had caused

irreparable damage to some parts of virgin forests in the country. Some of

Vietnamese Civilians agro were destroyed or could not replanted as a result of

Agent Orange. Nowadays, weapon of mass destruction is being used widely to

meet with the capacity to destroy opponents effectively. The invention of toxic

chemical bombs which its temperature have a potential to rise until 3000 degrees

Celsius do not only damage all flora and fauna completely but also destroy

layers of soil which costs thousands of years to recover from the destruction

(Wall, 2003). The occurrence of war also resulted to the destruction of historical

monuments and infrastructures. The damages caused took years to restore or

worst last forever. Many renowned heritage buildings in Europe were badly

damaged during the First and Second World War. During the siege of Kiev in

Russia much of the city’s historical monuments were laid to waste. Recently, the

Israelis attack on the Gaza City have brought terrible destructions of buildings

and infrastructures like civilians’ houses, schools, mosque, and public amenities.

Shells also struck five high-rise buildings and a building housing media outlets in

Gaza City, injuring several journalists (The Star, 2009). This is not to mention the

lost of thousands of innocent lives.

 Apart from that, the impacts of war cause the social life of the civilians to

be malfunctioned. The loss of women’s and girls’ dignity is significant during war.

There were prostitution and rape among women and girls. According to Irene

Khan of Amnesty International, women and girls who live in war zone country

faced cruelty and become the victim of sexual crime. In some beliefs and custom,

women is a symbol of respected communities. Ironically, when women are being

belittled sexually and mutilated inhumanely, it is a sign that the whole community

is being defeated unconsciously and also as a way to frighten and embarrassed

women of the war torn country (Marshall, 2004). However, speaking of religion,

Islam is kind to women and teaches the believers to respect women. In any war

which involved Muslim soldiers, like during the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w time,

women of the war torn country or territory were treated humanely and respected,

this is contrary to opponent soldiers’ treatment, who tend to treat women like a

cheap dirt. Apparently, women in war torn country are prone to sexual crime

done by the occupied enemy. About thousands of women face cruelty, raped, got

pregnant and diagnosed with HIV/AIDS (Marshall, 2004). In some cases, many

women in the war torn country are smuggled yearly for forced labour and sex

worker. Some of them will work as a prostitute at nightclub and will pimp western

troops who sojourn in the army bases which located near the nightclub.

(Marshall, 2004).
 The impact of war is huge regardless of whether they are adult or children.

War brings misery among children physically, emotionally and mentally. Sadly,

there are millions of disabled children in the world due to war which had made

them faced hardship in such a tender age. The situation got even worse when

there are not proper rehabilitation services for the children to cope with the

disability. Such disability comprises of loss of limb and loss of sight. Besides that,

war causes impairment towards children’s psychology. Obviously, children are

very sensitive to extreme and intense life experience like war. It caused the

children’s psychology deteriorated. Most of the children will experience Post-

Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a disorder which a person undergo

or experience severe mental and emotional difficulties that develop after an

exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal (Oxford Advanced Learner’s

Dictionary,2005) . The affected children will experience dreadful nightmares and

insomniac, it is the same thing that happened to Ishmael Beach, a victim of war

in Uganda who wrote a ‘A Long Way Gone’ which tells his life experience as a

war victim in his homeland during his childhood (Joanna Santa Barbara, 2006).

Then, in another case, Wafa, a 12 years old Palestinian girl said that “I saw a girl

on TV who had lost her head in a bombing raid and now I have nightmares” (The

New Straits Times, 2009). It is sad that children of the war torn country have

experienced such awful thing during their childhood despite of living in modern

world today.
 In our opinion, we should avoid war at all costs. War only brings misery to

mankind. It have affected people globally in the areas of economic, environment

and social. It wastes valuable resources and energy in a negative way. Countries

should at all times adopt diplomacy in overcoming disagreements rather than

pointing guns at each other. Though some of the war victims had recovered from

the nightmares, but the bitter memory of becoming the war victim still cannot be

vanished from their mind. In Islam, war is acceptable as long as it is being

launched in the rightful manner and means and only involved the armies from

both sides, not the civilians. It is hoped that, in the future, there is no more war

happened. We should unite together to stop war and promote peaceful living

regardless of who we are. May we pray to Allah that peace will prevail over war.

Insya-Allah.
References :

Agencies (January 16, 2009). Israel strikes terror in Gaza.

Retrieved January 16, 2009 from
The Star newspaper

Barbara J.S (December 2006). Impact of war on Children and Imperative

to End War. Retrieved January 31, 2009 from
http://www.cmj.hr

Enzler S.M (September, 2006). Environmental Effects of Warfare.

Retrieved January 31, 2009 from
http://www.lenntech.com/feedback_uk.htm

Gilmore I (January 19, 2009). ‘Injuries are so bad that you wish they’d die’.
Retrieved February 12, 2009 from
The New Straits Times newspaper.

Henderson D.R (2008). German Economic Miracle.

Retrieved February 27, 2009 from
http://www.econlib.org

Marshall L (December 18, 2004). Unacceptable: The Impact of War on

Women and Children. Retrieved January 31, 2009 from
http://www.CommonDreams.org

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford University Press (2005).

(1133,1655)

Wall A.M ( 01/08/2003). The Ecological Footprints of War.

Retrieved January 31, 2009 from
http://www.bard.edu/bgia/bardpolitik/vol3/v-article2.pdf