The cost of war: Dr Terry McCarthy at TEDxUCD

Terry McCarthy is an Emmy Award winning war correspondent and is currently President and CEO of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, whose TEDxUCD 2014 talk is entitled 'The Cost of War'.

In his TEDxUCD talk, Terry who has covered wars from Central America to South East Asia to Central Asia and the Middle East, talks about the human costs of war, and outlines why it is so important that we never forget those human costs when we debate the use of military force anywhere in the world.

His TEDxUCD talk revolves around the story of one young Marine, Sergeant Johnny Jones, who lost both his legs in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Afghanistan.

Terry McCarthy is President and CEO of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council which invites authoritative and influential figures to Los Angeles and provides them with an open forum to promote greater understanding of current global issues and their impact on the people of Southern California.

He is a University College Dublin (UCD) philosophy graduate and in 2012 was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Literature by the University.

After completing his undergraduate studies at UCD, Terry moved to Paris to further pursue his studies before returning to Ireland to begin his reporting career working for the Irish Press in Dublin in 1984. He left Ireland to cover the civil wars in El Salvador and Nicaragua and the earthquake in Mexico City in 1985.

Since then he has travelled the world for television and print media covering politics, business, military, social and environmental issues across the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

He has managed bureaus in the US and overseas, and established two bureaus in war zones. He speaks six languages, has won four Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow award.
Post 9/11, he covered the war in Afghanistan, where he opened TIME's Kabul office, and later went to Kuwait to follow the troops into Iraq in 2003. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, he set up TIME's bureau in Baghdad.

His first forays into television came in Iraq, where he was part of the ABC News/TIME team that reported the special series 'Iraq, Where Things Stand', which won two Emmy Awards in 2003 and 2004.

He covered the execution of Saddam Hussein, the battle for Baghdad and the US troop surge under General Petraeus. He travelled throughout Iraq covering the war from the U.S. military and the Iraqi civilian perspectives, for which he won an Emmy Award in 2007.

He has also reported on Islamic radicals in Jordan, life along the Yangtze River in China, the North Korean nuclear threat, swine flu in Mexico and hurricanes in the Caribbean.

In July 2012 he took up his current role as President and CEO of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

[deadshepherd]

I think two amazing things came out of this video. The first is that honest depiction of the environment of fear and the devastating personal costs of war, the untold cost if you will. It provokes a lot of mixed feelings, the real stories of what takes place for infantry on the front lines of modern combat. It's a lot to stomach, and to make it worse, you're surprised by it because it's been deliberately hidden from you. The second is the amazing personal story of Johnny Jones, particularly how it ends. Somehow, in the face of permanent life changing injury, he's able to go on and achieve more. Somewhere in his heart there must be great feeling then, that his life wasn't over, or that the cost was not unexpected and was worth it, or perhaps both. Maybe he was happy to take the blast, so that his friends didn't have to. Or maybe he thought about his friend who died, and how he personally was lucky to survive at all. It's possible he had fully accepted these consequences when he enlisted, or when he became a bomb defuser. I imagine there must have been some combination of these things. And then you also must consider the profound impact of his friend's death, how that absence must feel for his family and friends back home. I don't think we'll ever stop fighting wars. But in these two points, I think there are two ideals we might strive for. First, we encountered that horrible quagmire of fear and death hidden from us that lies at the heart of war. Why is it so terrible, even to imagine it? Because, not because we can imagine ourselves dying or suffering terrible injury, but we might imagine our children, parents or friends suffering and dying in such a way. So, the ideal here I hope is that at least once before we support a war (or do nothing to stop it), or before someone puts the lives of human beings at risk, that we recognize these are personal costs of the most dire kind. The question is not, are you willing to sacrifice the lives of 10, 000 or 100, 000 soldiers to secure possible victory? It should be, would you be willing to sacrifice your child, or your neighbors child, friend or parent for this war? Along with this, how are you going to help these men and the suffering of their families if you support or condone this war, howsoever it ends even in stalemate or defeat? If men and women are going to die for our decision, it should be worthy of at least this modicum of our consideration. The second ideal springs from the personal story of Johnny Jones' recovery. At least within this single anecdote, you see a person who thrives despite terrible loss. How he is able to bear it, we've explored, and we may continue to explore, but we know at least that he must have had some great notion of sacrifice within himself, that he was able to suffer so much personally for what he believes in. The ideal for other soldiers here I hope is that they find this notion for themselves before they commit to enlistment. Because this is really possible for you. In fact, you would be lucky to come out like Johnny has. Maybe you could even go a step further and rationalize the pain that your death will cause to your family, and whether that is worth the effort you are putting in to war. What I, or anyone else thinks doesn't matter, it's what you really believe. If you can say yes, I would be happy to bear with death, life-changing injury, and the spectre of pain that might plague my family after my death for the hope of a good outcome in this war, then maybe you're ready to do it. I would suggest even perhaps trying a single hour without using your legs or your hands, and consider if you could bear that outcome for the rest of your life (completely serious). Or maybe, disappearing out of your parents lives for a few months where they might have no knowledge of your whereabouts, and then experience the fear and pain that creates when you return. Why do this? I'm not saying "don't do it", that's your choice. But it should bolster your resolve, and if you do suffer, you will have known it at least partially. Then perhaps, you could be Johnny Jones and not John Rambo, or any one of the 20 to 30% of soldiers who return from service with PTSD.

[Atino]

"I am not saying that all wars are wrong" ?? Yes sir, indeed all wars are wrong.

[theladiesman]

The sound is really low anyone got that.