War Mathematics

War, war never changes. There are lots of factors when waging a war. Size of your army, equipment, capabilities, amount of training blar blar blar. Although each war is unique, it almost always goes by a certain formula, a formula so precise it is almost mathematical in nature. And if you were to look at a war through the lens of its formula, it might give you a very different picture than what you are seeing in the news today.

Take for example the conflict in Lebanon, when the capture of two Israeli soldiers did not add up to a prisoner exchange but an invasion. When bombing Lebanon did not add up to a stop or even a slow down in missile attacks in Israel but instead an escalation in the very attacks Israel is trying so hard to stop. What it added up to instead is hundreds of civilian deaths and much sorrow and misery for the people of both sides of the conflict.

Another good example was the war in Iraq. A "just" war which was suppose to "free" the Iraqi people and give them a better way of life instead added up to suffering for the Iraqi people and grieving families in the US. It added up to parents having to bury their children for what looked like a war based on false pretenses, lies and a trigger happy president with an axe to grind you know who. It has lead to moral decay for people personally involved in the war, the Abu Graib scandal being a good example.

The formula I am talking about is the human factor. War is very different when you look at it with your humanity instead of looking at it through tanks, planes and ships or the illusion of "who is right and who is wrong". It suddenly doesn't seem so fun or cool anymore when things go "boom" because when things go "boom", people die. When people die, other people will swear vengence, some of these "other people" will strap themselves with bombs and go "boom" taking more people along with them. Its a vicious cycle.

So the next time when waging war, I suggest we do the math and put the human factor into the equation.