Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Preventing civilian casualties during wars

With another Doctors without borders hospital being hit this time in Yemen we see once again how hard it is to prevent civilian casualties. If you look back to World War II and specifically the Firebombing of Dresden and other European cities and the firebombing of Japan as well, it was actually all the civilian casualties that ended World War II so it didn't drag on until 1950 or after with millions more Americans dying. However, it is also safe to say that more Americans who were civilians died in World War II than did American Soldiers. And 20 million (mostly Russian civilians) starved to death or were killed during the war defeating Germany and Japan.

Civilian casualties might be minimized in fighting a war. But no war that is actually won definitively will be won without truly massive civilian casualties. This is just the reality of war.

So likewise, the wars in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan or any others will never be won without completely unacceptable civilian casualties everywhere. If you study history, this is just the actual nature of war everywhere, and always has been.

The only thing so far, paradoxically, that has minimized war on any level ongoing has been nuclear weapons. Because everyone knows if you let those loose all humans on earth soon will be dead (as well as every other living thing on earth).

No comments: