Warning: Here comes a rant. Just over 22 years ago a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center began a devastating war, and I use the word war loosely here. This two decade long conflict has had a huge cost in money and lives. In this post I will set aside the money numbers with my rant focused on the human costs. In terms of human costs the numbers are staggering and these numbers are estimates. One report states the total number of deaths is 167,000 people killed by direct war violence in Afghanistan. I find that to be 167,000 too many. Which brings up my focus of this post: violence does not bring peace.
I read from the Save the Children website that almost 33,000 children have been killed and maimed in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, an average of one child every five hours. Even if that number was half as many it’s shockingly too high. Again: violence does not bring peace.
September is National Suicide Prevention Month so I thought I’d mention a few numbers on suicides of veterans. Since Sept. 11, 2001, just over 30,000 veterans have died by suicide — four times more than the number of U.S. military personnel who died in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. That also comes out close to one veteran every five hours. I find it dumbfounding that we can support the idea of putting a uniform on a young person then training them to kill, placing them in combat situations and not expect them to have psychological trauma. Once again: violence does not bring peace.
Even if the numbers presented here are incorrect by 90% they are way too high. They affect me at a deep level. Not sure it was a good idea to write this post but searching for these numbers has reinforced my conviction that: violence does not bring peace. Let’s try something else!
4 Comments
Faye White
Amen! And unfortunately I don’t see the situation improving any time soon. Money rules the world and those with the money could care less.
Monte Stevens
A change may not happen in our life time but I do believe we will change our way of thinking. It could even be from necessity.
Mark
Rant is well justified in my opinion Monte. In saying “Never Forget” – we must never forget ALL of those numbers, which frequently do not get mentioned. And for what? It makes me sick. Thirty-three thousand children – can you imagine the grief and resentment as a result of that? All these numbers do not mention all the other acts of violence prior to 9/11 that led up to creating 9/11. Innocents and heros died on 9/11 no doubt. And the reaction even more. The cycle continues until we evolve above it. Thanks for posting about this – I was thinking it but I get a little too worked up about it.
Monte Stevens
And, unfortunately there are those who think vengeance, taking the lives of 33,000 children, was the correct action to take. And it is a fact that we left behind thousands of people in grief and resentments which will lead to the next act of violence.