The statistics presented to us through the various media outlets about the war in the Middle East fail to convey the full horror of its impact on human and nonhuman life and the commentary tells us little about the negative consequences for the descendants of those who suffer from the violence as well as the harm done to the biosphere which will last for millennia.

Our lack of exposure to the full horror of the war is not entirely the fault of the media as much of what is happening is not seen by them. Although the visuals aired for a few minutes on our screens and the brief accounts that are broadcast of the anguish and inconsolable grief felt by those whose loved ones have been injured and killed resonate with most people, we living far from the suffering have no voice in the war cabinets of the United States, Israel and Iran. Nor do we have a voice in the war cabinets in Ukraine and Russia or the desert camps of the warring parties in Sudan. No one on our rain-soaked island can declare that a war in a faraway land is over.

What we can do is educate ourselves about the horror and the consequences of war which might lead to a mass opting out of the militarist mindset which holds that there is no alternative to organised violence, a view that the 1998 Northern Ireland Peace Agreement firmly rejected.

The militarist mindset is dangerously flawed as it is based on a fractured view of humanity. On the one hand it depicts an entire people, in the case of the United States’ war on Iran, 93 million humans, as undeserving of the essentials of life such as water, food and energy as well as freedom from anxiety and fear. This is underscored by President Donald Trump saying that he will bomb the Iranian people “back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

The word ‘belong’ is telling as it reveals that in his cosmology there are the deserving and the undeserving, those who have entitlements ascribed by divine providence and those that don’t. This view of the so-called enemy is prevalent amongst all warring groups. It was articulated by Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of War, who in a religious service at the Pentagon on the 25 March said that the wicked should be eliminated and called on God, with reference to Iran, to “break the teeth” and kill the “wicked” enemies “who deserve no mercy” and should be “delivered to the eternal damnation prepared for them.”

The militarist mindset can simultaneously consider a whole ethnic group or nation unworthy of life while exalting those of their in-group / country / who cause others enormous suffering and commit mass murder if it is perceived to further the interests of their group.

Aside from the inaccuracy of this fractured view of humanity and the indifference to the suffering it causes, which is overwhelmingly borne by women and children, there is an additional ecological and human cost even if not a single person receives a scratch in the war zone. Both arise out of military spending.

The projected global sum that will be spent on the military in 2026 is $2.9 trillion. The United States is expected to spend in excess of $1 trillion while the European Union is expected to increase its spending by 60 billion Euro bringing the total to an estimated 460 billion Euro. This is money that could be spent on meeting social needs such as affordable housing, health care, education, care of the vulnerable and regenerative agriculture both at home and abroad.

A positive outcome of redirecting the enormous amount of money spent on the military towards social need is that it lessens the potential for social conflict thus helping neuter the perceived need for military hardware and trained killers.

As the 30-year long period of political violence in Northern Ireland reveals there is the phenomena of inter-generational trauma which carries a litany of wellbeing issues including chronic ill-health as revealed by the 2025 report ‘The Prevalence and Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences in Northern Ireland’ which was commissioned by the N.I. Executive. In the case of the violence and destruction of civic infrastructure in Palestine, Sudan and other war zones the children not only experience deep trauma but as their schools have been destroyed and many of their teachers killed they will likely grow up without receiving a formal education.

With few exceptions media coverage of wars neglect to examine their impact on the biosphere including the ecosystems in the war zones. When the ghastly plumes of black smoke rise into the sky from bombed buildings, oil storage tanks and ships an easy reference could be made by the commentators that the smoke and dust emitted from the bombed structures contribute to the warming of the planet and that the fallout will poison water, soil and plants and likely be inhaled by the human and nonhuman population causing chronic health problems.

The amount of global warming gasses emitted by war is substantial. The Guardian reports that in the first two weeks of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran the global warming emissions exceeded the amount emitted by Iceland in the course of a year. In February 2025, Earth.org reported that the global warming emissions from Russia’s war on Ukraine was the equivalent of the annual emissions of Austria, Hungry, Czech Republic and Slovakia combined. Globally, the military’s annual emission of global warming gases totals approximately 5.5 percent of the annual global total emissions. If the military were a country they would rank as the fourth-largest national emitter.

The militarist mindset not only wages war against people, in particular women and children who are the main causalities of war, but on the biosphere itself. To undermine the ability of the biosphere to sustain life robs us of the right to call ourselves Homo sapiens – the wise ape.