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.
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