Are There Any "Winners" in War?

Essay by freckles8155High School, 10th gradeA, July 2008

download word file, 3 pages 4.0 1 reviews

War is not a game people play to win prizes or gain recognition for their skill. After one side surrenders, and a treaty is signed, one side does go home feeling like a winner. Both sides suffer irreplaceable losses. For this reason, there are no true winners in war.

Some people may feel that they came out of the war victoriously, but as Agatha Christie said, “To win a war is as disastrous as to lose one.” For example, in the American Revolution, we “won”, but is it really victory when 8,000 Americans died on the battlefield? We lost more soldiers than the British lost during that war, yet we came out of it looking like winners. There’s a reason that every country that participates in war is a loser, whether they lost more men, they didn’t get what they wanted out of the war, or they started the war and caused all the deaths that took place within it.

So far 3,974 soldiers have died since the war was launched in Iraq on March 20, 2003. More than 81,000 Iraqis have died in the same war. These lives can not be replaced. These atrocities can not be mended. The moment lives are disrupted, and the moment a life ends, you have officially lost the war, even if it hasn’t ended yet. When a soldier is sent to war, their loved ones hope for their safe return, but all the while knowing that some will be lost along the way. And all they can do is hope that their loved one will not be one of the thousands that die.

Numerous soldiers from both countries come home with severe injuries that affect how they will live for the rest of their life. 29,320 American troops alone have been wounded in...