Gun violence and US foreign policy

As the only superpower in today's world, the U.S. has the biggest gun in the world. It can outgun anybody. In the last two decades, the U.S. fought many wars, almost one after another. War has become part of American life. Fighting and killing have become an inevitable part of contemporary life in the U.S. Nobody can argue that it does not have an impact on the American mindset and American behavior.

Of course, war is nothing new. Human history has been filled with wars. However, war seemed more justifiable in the early stages of human history, when humans were faced with insurmountable scarcities in order to survive. Today, we can easily produce enough for everybody to survive comfortably, and we have many other ways to solve our differences without resorting to violence. Under these circumstances, it has become less justifiable to wage wars than at any other time in history. There will still be instances where for the purpose of self-defense, states or groups will have to resort to violence. However, unnecessary wars that cannot be justified could easily become wonton slaughter, which is dehumanizing.  Hundreds and thousands of American troops were involved in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These soldiers were made to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people. The veterans of these wars tempered by the extreme violence they have been a part of were no longer the same any more. Upon their return, many of these individuals suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses.   

These veterans with mental problems are more likely to use guns to kill themselves and others as a result of their exposures to the extreme violence of wars they had experienced. The wars we waged overseas contributed to gun violence in more than one way.

The Research group under the Chinese Academy of Science published a report entitled National Health Report on January 8, 2013. In that report, it claimed that the U.S. had captured $7.396 trillion as superpower profits, accounting for 96. 8 per cent of the world total, and for 52.38 percent of U.S. GDP. But the report failed to account for the cost the U.S. bears as the superpower: the amount of money the U.S. spends on the military is bigger than the ten next big spenders combined. There is the obvious cost of fighting these wars overseas, which is in the trillions. On top of that is the not so obvious cost like maintaining veteran hospitals to provide long term care for the physically and mentally injured veterans in these wars, on which is difficult to put a figure. It is simply impossible to accurately assess the real cost of wars. The grief and suffering the soldiers' families endured when their loved ones were killed and injured in war, the loss of productivities and other ramifications from the actions of wars should all be taken into consideration. The U.S. Department of Defense now calls the high suicide rate among soldiers an epidemic. Nobody can say for sure that this high suicide rate among soldiers does not relate to wars the U.S. wages overseas.

In order to curb gun violence in the U.S. the U.S. needs to examine every aspect of its culture. The US Government is one of the loudest defenders of human rights in the world. The U.S. Government should be true to its rhetoric, and practice what it preaches about human rights. It should take steps to renounce using war and violence as a foreign policy tool. In America, people frequently see signs urging the support of troops. If the U.S. is true to its human rights rhetoric, there should be signs supporting the innocent who have been killed in American military actions as a result of collateral damage. There should also be signs calling for the government to suspend using drones as a weapon of killing people without due process. 

If American people and their Government are serious about curbing gun violence back home, then it needs to reconsider its foreign policy, and its inclination to use violence to solve international problems. If the American people and their Government really value human life, and care about human rights, then they need to value all human lives, including the ones who disagree with the U.S. on some of the important issues in this world, and if they really care about human rights, they need to extend them to those with whom they don't always see eye to eye.   

Of course, there are other incentives for peace. When I was in graduate school, my teacher told me that war was good for business. I had a hard time understanding it. Later on, I began to understand that war is good for some people. But peace would be good for many more people. If we spend less on wars, we would have more money to help the people who need help. We would have a better society if these who need help are able to get them.

If we do not and cannot change our foreign policy, then gun violence in this country will continue to be part of the domestic ramifications of our foreign policy.