The Cost of Iraq: Who Pays the Price?

The Iraq war has come at a heavy price for many. It has drained this country's resources and created a humanitarian disaster in Iraq.

On March 24, 2008, four days after the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, bells across the United States tolled for the 4,000 U.S. military men and women who have died in this war. But according to a March 2008 study by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, only 28 percent of people in the United States were aware that we were approaching the 4,000-casualty mark. Few could reckon the cost of the war with any personal sacrifice they had made.

In 2008, as part of its effort to bring an end to the war, UUSC is asking the question, who pays the price for the war in Iraq?

With program partners Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, and Appeal for Redress, UUSC is lifting up the voices of some who have paid a high price for this war, who articulate powerful reasons why the war in Iraq is unjust. Through Justice Sunday events and workshops at the UUA General Assembly 2008, UUSC is challenging people around the country to examine the full costs of the war — not just in terms of human costs, but also in terms of the cost to our vision of a free and just world.

In 1967, Martin Luther King, Jr., consciously decided to link opposition to the war in Vietnam with his wider commitment to achieving social and economic justice. For King, the militarism of the U.S. government was intimately connected with racial discrimination and poverty — sad facts of life for many living in this country, both then and now. In a speech he delivered in New York City on April 4 of that year, King said, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

So far, the monetary cost of the war to the United States is more than $500 billion. This sum calculates to more than $341 million per day or $4,600 per U.S. household since the beginning of the war. King would have seen this sum as more than just dollars or debt, but as real social costs. Imagine, $500 billion could have paid for 81 million scholarships for university students, or 8.6 million elementary-school teachers, or health care for 230 million children. Considered as trade offs we have made toward realizing our collective vision of a world free from oppression and injustice, this war has come at an enormous cost.

But we can take action to change this reality. We can participate in the electoral process and get involved in grassroots movements. Standing up for justice will create a domino effect that will transform everyone. As Wayne Smith, manager of UUSC's Civil Liberties Program, said from the pulpit in Belmont, Mass., on Justice Sunday, "It is up to you and me to continue King's long march toward peace and justice."