The "war on terror" - and by terrorists - has directly killed [somewhere between 62,006 – 180,000] people, created 4.5 million refugees and cost the US more than the sum needed to pay off the debts of every poor nation on earth.
The extraordinary scale of the conflict's impact, claiming lives from New York to Bali and London to Lahore, and the extent of the death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan, has emerged from an Independent survey to mark the fifth anniversary of 11 September.
To gauge the full cost in blood and money of the worldwide atrocities and military conflicts that began in September 2001: As of yesterday, the numbers of lives confirmed lost are: 4,541 - 5,308 civilians and 385 military in Afghanistan; 50,100 civilians and 2,899 military in Iraq; and 4,081 in acts of terrorism in the rest of the world.
The new figure on civilian deaths from Iraq Body Count, a group of British and US academics, is especially telling. Just two and a half years ago, its estimate of the number of civilian dead in Iraq passed 10,000. Today, it says, that figure has gone beyond the 50,000 mark - a huge leap largely attributable to terrorist acts and the breakdown of civil authority.
Iraq Body Count's careful methodology - of recording a death only when it appears in two independent media reports - almost certainly produces a substantial underestimate. Even the Iraqi Health Ministry reports a slightly higher figure.
In July, the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants said there were 2.2 million Afghans who had fled abroad and at least 153,200 displaced internally. For Iraq, there were 888,700 external refugees, and 1.3 million people displaced inside the country. An estimated 40 per cent of the Iraqi middle class have left Iraq.
Beyond the blood price, there is a dollar cost. In July it was reported that the US Congress had approved $437bn for costs related to the "war on terror". This, a sum greater than those spent on the Korean and Vietnam wars, compares to the $375bn that Make Poverty History says is needed to clear the debts of the world's poorest nations.
[ Excerpt of an article by David Randall and Emily Gosden, The Independent]
1 comment:
We sympathize with those who lost their loved ones and their livelihoods, and with the poor children who lost their parents, or the people who were left injured, maimed or burned. The Lord Himself grieves for them, and His heart is greatly touched by this calamity.
At the same time, there are lessons to learn from this tragedy, for both America and the world. One is that advanced technology is no guarantee of the safety and security of a nation; only the Lord is.
Many nations have sympathy for America in the face of her great loss, but as Americans lash out aggressively at anyone they think is against them, anyone they perceive as being hostile, then the sympathy will fade fast. And in the end, many countries will be more anti-American than they ever were in the past.
Why will there be anti-Americanism? Because of the actions and attitudes of Americans themselves, sad to say. Instead of seeing themselves as others see them, many will persist in looking at the world only through a nationalistic American lens and viewpoint, so they'll reap antagonism instead of support.
Ted Rudow III,MA
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