Recently I reread Dalton Trumbo’s novel, “Johnny Got His Gun.” First published in 1939, Trumbo made an addition to the introduction in the 1970 edition. In that addition he wrote, “numbers make us numb” referring to the death count in Viet Nam. Thirty-eight years later I fear numbers still make us numb.

Trumbo looked at the numbers a little differently and perhaps that would be helpful now, as well. Regardless of whether you are in favor of or opposed to the War in Iraq, it is critical that we all keep the costs in perspective. To that end, updated for the current conflict, here is the Dalton Trumbo War Cost Calculator.

To date, there have been 4,174 service men and women who have lost their lives in Iraq. On average, the adult human body contains about one and a half gallons of blood. 4,174 dead times one and a half gallons of blood is 6,261 gallons of blood, 150 full bathtubs of blood no longer pumping through human hearts. Three pounds is about what the average adult human brain weighs. 4,174 dead times three pounds is 12,522 lbs — six and a quarter tons of brain matter that will never again think a human thought. Combatants in our previous wars have been younger on average than in the current conflict where the large number of national guard and reserve troops deployed has pushed the average age up to thirty. Presuming that thirty is also the average age of the war fighters killed and subtracting that figure from the average life expectancy of seventy-eight you have a difference of forty-eight years. 4,174 dead times forty-eight leaves 200,352 years of human life, American life that will go unlived.

In addition to the dead, there are the wounded — 30,662 according to the Pentagon and well over 100,000 by other estimates. Trumbo noted in his writing in 1970 that it was difficult to get an accounting of the exact nature of the injuries sustained in Viet Nam and the same is true today in Iraq. One thing that we do know is that our warriors are surviving traumas that in past wars would have killed them. With advances in medical technology and the advent of modern body armor soldier’s torsos are remaining intact while their extremities are being shredded Of the 30,662 officially recognized wounded approximately 6% are amputees. Arms, legs and eyes are being lost and in their place we substitute titanium, plastic and glass. Reading the roll calls of amputees is sobering, lists of names, ages and appendages lost: A twenty-two year old man without hands; a nineteen year old man without an arm; a twenty-five year old woman without a leg. Some injuries are easier to research than others. I could find no account regarding the number penises destroyed but apocryphal evidence suggests that catastrophic genital injuries are fairly common. Information about the number of breasts and wombs destroyed was unattainable but we can assume it occurs in this conflict as we have sent our women into battle along with our men.

We can determine numbers to the physical losses of war, but these hard figures can not take into account the cost to individuals, families and our society as a whole.

Psychological and emotional injuries are the most challenging to catalog, due in part to a stigma associated with mental health issues, which creates a reluctance in soldiers to report their difficulties. But we know that thousands of our vets will bear invisible scars for the rest of their lives. These hidden costs of war are long lasting and far-reaching affecting not only our veterans but their families as well. We can’t really know how many suicides will result from this conflict. We can’t really know how many Americans will reach not for the dreams they once aspired to but reach instead for a bottle, a pipe, or a syringe. We can’t know how many marriages will be broken, how many children will grow up with psychologically wounded or emotionally distant fathers or mothers, how many night’s slumber will be shattered by nightmares and screams, how many nights will pass without sleep at all. We can’t know how many men and women will weep alone unable to reach out for the help they need and deserve.

We can’t know these things for the true costs of war are incalculable.

Tags: David Williams

This entry was posted on Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 7:13 am and is filed under Citizen Journalists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.