Killed by US Military Actions (II)
Written by Alfonso Elizondo
The Korean War began in 1950. According to a veteran of the US Army, in that war the Armed Forces, the US Army and Navy killed about 3 million civilians in both Koreas and the Army left about 650,000 tons of bombs scattered throughout the territory of the two Koreas. A communiqué issued by his government in 1995 stated that the number of civilians and servicemen killed in the Vietnam War was 5.1 million, and if you add the number of dead in Cambodia and Laos, the estimated death toll in that war is 7.8 million people.
Pakistan has always been an ally of the US and it is estimated that nearly 3 million people died during its war against Bangladesh. In addition, the Philippines was under US control during the presidency of Fernando Marcos, when the number of people executed or disappeared was more than 100,000.
In the Israel-Palestine conflict sponsored by the US, between 100,000 and 200,000 people have died on both warring sides. And everything suggests that the conflict will continue as long as the US continues to protect Israel, although more issues have been created in this longstanding conflict with the interventions of Turkey, Syria, Iran and other Islamic groups.
In another of its numerous acts of military intervention overseas, in August 1998, the US bombarded Khartoum with 75 missiles, claiming that that the aim was to destroy a chemical weapons factory owned by its onetime associate Osama bin Laden. Between 1998 and 2003, the number of deaths reported by various Human Rights groups is estimated at 200,000.
As a final event in the matter of US intervention in all the territories of the world today, there is the breakup of Yugoslavia after the fall of the Soviet Union. Current international agencies estimate that this division caused a little over 107,000 deaths during the internal struggles between their countries and more than 250,000 in Bosnia and Krajina.
There have been many small countries where US military actions have caused thousands of deaths, such as in Nepal, Laos, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and other Latin American and African countries, so that the number of deaths resulting from US military actions ranges between 20 to 30 million people of all ethnicities, cultures and religions since the end of World War II in 1945. Nevertheless, the influence of the Western media, technology and finance is still dominant in much of the world, and there are countless nations still controlled by their media and ideas about US global intervention being a kind of ‘natural right’ or divine preference granting exclusive powers to Americans which are clearly expressed in the Statue of Liberty outside New York.
Addendum: It is very likely that with the massive development of China and India, in addition to the skilful leadership of the Russian government, a new plural world order will be created, as well as adequate control of the world population and of scientific and technological development, but it is very difficult to forecast the time that process will take, although a sudden change in the path of our galaxy or an unexpected weather event, like the one that is happening right now, could put an instant end to organic life on our Planet.
Another current situation that can be observed in today’s world is the failure of all national governments and the widespread tendency to withdraw from democratic formulas, diplomacy, legality and justice within the international context.