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SriRangaSri List Archive: Message 00082 Mar 2003

 
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Dear friends in Kuwait,

We here in Kuwait are now well into the 7th day of the War that has
descended upon neigbouring Iraq. No one really knows how much longer
this will go on. Some say it might take 6 weeks; others fear it will
take 6 months. And those who said, in the beginning, that it would
take only 6 short days are now strangely silent...

******************** 

As the War lengthens in duration, everyone is slowly turning to face
the looming, daunting question: What will be the "costs of this war"?
What is the price of a 6-week war? And what is the price of a 6-month
war? 

The exercise of "damage assessment" has now begun all over the world.
Every country and every individual around the world, like it or not,
must now sit down to ascertain and prepare to meet the estimated
costs and consequences of "Operation Iraqi Freedom". We do not have a
choice now.

Economists are warning us of the following costs:

* global economic slow-down, if not a mega-recession 
* widespread joblessness; low consumer and investor confidence
* higher prices of oil and gasoline
* more terrorism and political instability

Now these 'costs' above are purely economic. They are probably the
most obvious and easy to calculate. Unfortunately, War has other
not-so-obvious price-tags that none really knows how to assess. Who
can calculate, for example, the amount of carcinogens and noxious
elements that have been injected into the environment around us as a
result of the huge amount of military ordnance dropped in Iraq in the
past 7 days? Who can assess the damage on ecology caused by the
torching of oil-fields a few days ago in the Fau peninsula of Iraq?
Who can price the damage to marine life in the Arabian Gulf caused by
explosive mines we know have been laid on the ocean-floor? 

************************** 

Even more incalculably damaging than economic and environmental costs
of War are the costs that we may term as "cultural" or "human".

What are these "human" or "cultural" costs? There are 4 principal
costs of War and Arjuna recounted them very eloquently indeed in the
opening chapter of the Bhagavath-Gita:


kulakshaye praNashyanti kuladharmaaH sanaatanaaH .
dharme nashhTe kula.n kR^its{}namadharmo.abhibhavatyuta .. 1\.40..

adharmaabhibhavaatkR^ishhNa pradushhyanti kulastriyaH .
striishhu dushhTaasu vaarshhNeya jaayate varNasaN^karaH .. 1\.41..

saN^karo narakaayaiva kulagh{}naanaaM kulasya cha .
patanti pitaro hyeshhaaM lup{}tapiNDodakakriyaaH .. 1\.42..

doshhairetaiH kulagh{}naanaaM varNasaN^karakaarakaiH .
utsaadyante jaatidharmaaH kuladharmaashcha shaashvataaH .. 1\.43.. 


When Arjuna was consumed by the horror of war on the eve of battle at
Kurukshetra it was not the prospect of world-wide recession or the
fall of the Dow Jones index that weighed heavily upon his mind. His
horror of war was occasioned principally by 4 profoundly human or
cultural costs which he listed in the above 4 'shlOka-s' as:

(1) "dharma-nashtE" -- the loss of social order
(2) "pranashyanti kula-dharma: sanAtana" -- the destruction of 
social culture
(3) "


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