After the catastrophic attacks of September 11 2001 monumental 
sorrow and a feeling of desperate and understandable anger began to 
permeate the American psyche. A few people at that time attempted to 
promote a balanced perspective by pointing out that the United States 
had also been responsible for causing those same feelings in people in 
other nations, but they produced hardly a ripple. Although Americans 
understand in the abstract the wisdom of people around the world 
empathizing with the suffering of one another, such a reminder of wrongs
 committed by our nation got little hearing and was soon overshadowed by
 an accelerated “war on terrorism.”
But we must continue our efforts to develop understanding and 
compassion in the world. Hopefully, this article will assist in doing 
that by addressing the question “How many September 11ths has the United
 States caused in other nations since WWII?” This theme is developed in 
this report which contains an estimated numbers of such deaths in 37 
nations as well as brief explanations of why the U.S. is considered 
culpable.
The causes of wars are complex. In some instances nations other than 
the U.S. may have been responsible for more deaths, but if the 
involvement of our nation appeared to have been a necessary cause of a 
war or conflict it was considered responsible for the deaths in it. In 
other words they probably would not have taken place if the U.S. had not
 used the heavy hand of its power. The military and economic power of 
the United States was crucial.
This study reveals that U.S. military forces were directly 
responsible for about 10 to 15 million deaths during the Korean and 
Vietnam Wars and the two Iraq Wars. The Korean War also includes Chinese
 deaths while the Vietnam War also includes fatalities in Cambodia and 
Laos.
The American public probably is not aware of these numbers and knows 
even less about the proxy wars for which the United States is also 
responsible. In the latter wars there were between nine and 14 million 
deaths in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, East 
Timor, Guatemala, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sudan.
But the victims are not just from big nations or one part of the 
world. The remaining deaths were in smaller ones which constitute over 
half the total number of nations. Virtually all parts of the world have 
been the target of U.S. intervention.
The overall conclusion reached is that the United States most likely 
has been responsible since WWII for the deaths of between 20 and 30 
million people in wars and conflicts scattered over the world.
To the families and friends of these victims it makes little 
difference whether the causes were U.S. military action, proxy military 
forces, the provision of U.S. military supplies or advisors, or other 
ways, such as economic pressures applied by our nation. They had to make
 decisions about other things such as finding lost loved ones, whether 
to become refugees, and how to survive.
And the pain and anger is spread even further. Some authorities estimate that there are as many as 10 wounded for each person who dies in wars. Their visible, continued suffering is a continuing reminder to their fellow countrymen.
It is essential that Americans learn more about this topic so that 
they can begin to understand the pain that others feel. Someone once 
observed that the Germans during WWII “chose not to know.” We cannot 
allow history to say this about our country. The question posed above 
was “How many September 11ths has the United States caused in other 
nations since WWII?” The answer is: possibly 10,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment