As tensions escalate in more and more complex ways throughout the world, it’s tempting for ordinary Americans to dismiss questions of war as above our pay grade. But sometimes things are simpler than they seem.
It doesn’t take a mastery of the Just War Tradition to grasp this simple fact: War is not just about war. There are numerous violations of human dignity that often immediately accompany the outbreak of war, and Catholics should take these threats seriously before shrugging at whether their government will or won’t take military action.
Whether it’s the Trump administration threatening action against the Venezuelan government or any other administration considering any other war, every instance of possible armed conflict is a good occasion to consider these potential consequences – and their victims.
Famine
When war breaks out, the flow of many essential goods comes to a grinding halt as the formation of war zones stops ordinary suppliers from reaching consumers.
The World Food Program is currently warning that hunger is on the rise in many parts of the world — and the No. 1 contributing factor is war.
“Out of 690 million people facing hunger around the world, 60% live in countries affected by violence and conflict,” the organization states.
Readers can view the World Food Program’s Conflict Infographic for more information.
Loss of basic healthcare
Many of us likely picture healthcare crises in warzones being primarily a matter of treating those wounded in battle. In reality, however, most of the urgent medical needs of people in war zones aren’t the result of direct injury from armed conflict, and the people in most need aren’t even necessarily soldiers.
The greatest driver of health crises faced by people living near armed conflict is the destruction of healthcare infrastructure and lack of access to medical supplies.
“During war and conflict,” Doctors Without Borders reports, “regular medical needs soar as health care services collapse. Pregnant women, or people with chronic diseases such as diabetes or HIV, are left particularly vulnerable.”
Displacement and homelessness
“Armed conflict frequently causes people to flee either as a direct consequence of violence or due to the indirect or cumulative effects of war,” according to the Center for Civilians in Conflict. “The human and security costs of displacement can be high, as civilians become particularly vulnerable to different types of harm and situations of conflicts can be exacerbated and protracted.”
As many as 1.9 million people (90% of the population) in Gaza are estimated to be displaced by the conflict there, for example. Smaller but still comparable numbers – and ones no less alarming on a personal level – are found in other regions facing war.
Displacement comes with countless risks, including deaths by exposure, abduction and other forms of mistreatment, and simple hunger and poverty.
Sex trafficking and rape
The State Department reported in 2016: “Armed conflict amplifies the risks of human trafficking for vulnerable populations by increasing economic desperation, weakening rule of law, decreasing the availability of social services, and forcing people to flee for their safety.”
Traffickers “thrive” in the instability produced by armed conflict, the department found, adding: “Camps for refugees and internally displaced persons are prime targets for traffickers.”
Researchers Dorothy Thomas and Regan Ralph reported in 1994 that large-scale rape is a “pervasive” crime that has historically accompanied virtually every armed conflict, affecting women disproportionately but also some men and boys.
Perhaps the most alarming data about sexual violence in conflict zones relates to how many underage girls are targeted.
A 2024 report from UNICEF stated that “[more] than 79 million girls and women—over 1 in 5—across sub-Saharan Africa have experienced rape or sexual assault before turning 18.”
“Globally, an alarming 370 million girls and women have faced sexual violence, with the region bearing the highest number of victims,” the report added, emphasizing that “girls face an even greater risk” in areas destabilized by conditions such as those resulting from armed conflict, “with the prevalence of rape and sexual assault in childhood slightly more than 1 in 4.”
Just war criteria
The Catholic Church has led the world in the development and promulgation of principles by which to weigh acts of war. Catholic Social Teaching holds that war must never be preemptive but always defensive. In addition, war can only be judged morally right under these circumstances:
- The damage inflicted by the aggressor must be “lasting, grave, and certain.”
- Every alternative to resolving the reason for conflict (such as diplomatic means) have been exhausted
- There are reasonable hopes of success on the part of the party initiating the war.
- The evil that the war is meant to put an end to is greater than the evils that will come about as a result of war.
That last principle is the one that this brief overview most directly addresses.
These are the horrors that result in almost every case at the outset of a new war – horrors so great that they may even outweigh whatever horror the war was meant to eradicate. And these consequences often go underreported in the fog of war. They aren’t, after all, “the war” itself.
Nonetheless, they are evils that come about precisely because of war — and perhaps because those of us with a seat at the table who may have advocated for peace were negligent of that responsibility when it counted most.
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