War. The event that most humans despair, which causes
them to awake every night in cold sweat. The event that haunts every
generation, because it robs sons from fathers and torments mothers with images
of what her child promise if he lived longer. But these parents hide these
thoughts behind brave smiles as they wave farewell to their sons as they step
through the terminal, ready to defend the cause which they believe in and are willingly to die for.
At
least, though, these brave soldiers accept the probability of their demise when
they enrolled into the army. Today, soldiers no longer fight in lonely fields far away
from towns similar to battles during the Civil War; instead, they often fight their conflicts in
the middle of cities, apartments, home, parks, or any other place swarming
with civilian life. The advances in weaponry, from the popular Burnside Carbine
in the 1860s, which effectively shot a bullet each minute,
to an AK-47, which rapidly shots bullets in seconds, creates permanent damage to unfortunate families in the war zone before the conscience can intervene. Thus,
during the twentieth century, a new type of war emerged, one waged on innocent
civilians caught helplessly during these armed conflicts.
In
1900, historians estimated that civilian fatalities ranged around five percent; by the end of WW2, it climbed to sixty five percent. At the recent turn
of the century, it escalated to ninety percent during the wars of the 1990s. Since
then, almost four million civilians died during these conflicts, like those that persists in Afghanistan. According to a recent UN article, the use of improvised
explosive devices (IEDs) during the Afghan conflict were the leading
cause of conflict-related death to civilians, escalating twenty four percent
from last year statistics. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
recorded that the first half of this year, about 1,564 civilians died, while
3,289 received injuries. Out of these
casualties, 520 were children, a thirty four percent increase since last year.
Though death by IEDs remains the second leading cause of death in these
regions, the third leading cause of death, suicide bombings, resulted in 583
civilian casualties. Surprisingly, those killed by government forces has been
cut down by half, while anti-government attacks nearly doubled in the past couple
of years.
 |
| In this image, a minivan holds the bodies of Afghan citizens, who were killed by American soldiers during armed conflict. |
The
failure of the Afghanistan government to provide any efficient methods of
prohibiting this kind of action frustrates me the most. The Taliban claimed its
attacks caused 553 civilian casualties, like they are proud for causing these
kinds of horrific acts. By the action of both participating forces in armed conflict, they
deprive these innocents’ right of live peacefully. But why? What do armed forces gain for stealing these
lives? Perhaps, being frighten out of their minds, soldiers shoot at everything
that moves, frighten that if they do not, those that move would kill them. These
types of violence that not only dominates this region, but other third world
countries with deteriorating governments or approaching a civil war, causes
many to live in fear for their lives. Currently,
this terror plagues my extended family in Venezuela, who witnesses these types
of violence from the army to the peaceful protesters every day. If the
situation becomes worse, they plan to seek refuge in Portugal in order to protect
themselves.
However,
most do not have the resource to flee the violence in their country. If they
survive the firefights, they head to refugee camps, hoping that the conflict
does not follow them there. Then, they spend the rest of their time worrying and
praying, just like soldiers’ parents do every night before they go to sleep.
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