Truemors
is reporting from
Member
NP Rank:
NP Rank:
The Hell of War: Innocent Civilian Casualties
Share: 
by YankeeJim | July 18, 2010 at 04:25 am
406 views | 0 Recommendations | 4 comments
Photos
There is a tightening noose around innocent people. It begins when the region in which they are located lacks a government that respects individuals and fails to address their basic needs. Under such circumstances, people must fend for themselves like the tribal herdsmen living on the planes in Africa. When there is sufficient space and not interference, the tribesmen may still have conflict with neighboring tribesmen, though they have developed rules that permit interaction. When nature fails them with drought and other natural disasters, they must cope as they always have and it is survival of the fittest.
At a different level of “civilization,” governments become more sophisticated and those in charge make value judgments about their constituents. Just making the decision about what to call them matters, i.e., subjects, citizens, low class, governing class, etc.. Then, some systems of governance comingle religion and a new system of segregation is introduced. If a person is not in the favored class, they may not be left alone. They may be persecuted, or worse, traded as a commodity or cleansed from society and massacred.
When bad people decide to take their vengeance outside the community, they may do so as warriors representing the government, or they may do so as terrorists, mercenaries, and freelancers. In the instance of sanctioned armies invading another region, that is war. In the event that there is no governmental sanction for warring people, that is insurgency or terrorism.
The innocent people that get in the way are victims.
People in the way may be forced to take sides when warfare in combinations of these conditions sweeps across nations and continents. If they make the wrong choice, they will become victims. If they make no choice they become victims.
People without the protection of democratic governments that honor individual freedom and liberty are vulnerable to becoming innocent casualties of conflict. What is the responsibility of democratic governments in the world to care for innocent people, if any?
“Rising civilian toll ignites anger at African force as it battles Somali militants
By Sudarsan Raghavan
Sunday, July 18, 2010
MOGADISHU, SOMALIA -- An African Union peacekeeping force, funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States and its allies, has killed, wounded and displaced hundreds of Somali civilians in a stepped-up campaign against Islamist militants, according to medical officials, human rights activists and victims.
Led by Ugandan and Burundian troops, the force has intensified shelling in recent weeks as Somalia's al-Shabab militia, which is linked to al-Qaeda, has pushed closer toward the fragile government's seat of power. The shells are landing in heavily populated areas, in some cases even neighborhoods controlled by the government. Al-Shabab leaders say the peacekeepers and the shelling are the key reasons it bombed two venues in Uganda's capital last Sunday, killing 76 people watching broadcasts of the World Cup final.
In this war-torn capital, Fatima Umar and Muse Haji were among the latest victims. An artillery shell crashed into their building, killing Umar on the top floor and Haji on the bottom floor. Umar, 15, was a cleaner who earned $7 a month to support her parents. Haji, 38, was a shopkeeper who was relaxing on his stoop on his day off.
Witnesses said the shell was fired from the direction of the airport, which the peacekeepers control. "It was the Ugandans," declared Omar Sharif, a clan elder, as he stood in the rubble next to a shattered bed splattered with Umar's blood. Sunlight glared through a huge hole in the wall.
"When one kilogram of mortars are fired by al-Shabab, AMISOM replies with 100 kilograms of artillery," said Abdulqadir Haji, director of a volunteer ambulance service, using the acronym for the African Union force. "It is America and the West who support them. America and the West are the silent killers in Somalia's war."”
Advertisement
NowPublic on Facebook
What is NowPublic?
NowPublic lets people work together to cover news events around the world.
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 04:57 on July 18th, 2010
If society does nothing to stop criminals, the criminals win. Sometimes, to stop criminals, innocent victims get in the way through no fault of their own. A decision must be made to stop the criminals or not. The answer may not be good for the innocent no matter the decision.
at 05:38 on July 18th, 2010
The first casaulity in a war is 'truth',a word which every government derides.Civil society is generally,without exception, hapless,silent and mute spectator.Media,despite all the pretensions of being free,is manipulated by power-that-be.And innocents are real victims.No one tries to stop criminals while expressing sympathy with the innocent victims.How a decision can be made by criminals to stop the criminals?A multi-million $ question.
at 07:03 on July 18th, 2010
Herein, you use an extreme view to make a point. You are saying that governments are inherently as bad as criminals. From a citizen's perspective all is bad. Well, I don't buy that completely. Governments are on a spectrum in which there are degrees of badness present. You may argue that powerful governments may enhance the effect of their badness, but I believe the American people are not inherently bad, for instance. Their institution is not as good as it could be because the American people are not as active as they should be, and their involvement has been undermined by large financial interests that corrupt and tend to bankrupt the system as we have seen.
at 08:09 on July 18th, 2010
YJ.I never meant that American,or for that matter Indian, people are inherently or innately bad.Not the least.But on the other hand,the governments are bad.It is an institution,or all other institutions associated with it, which can ever be good.
"Minds are of three kinds:one is capable of thinking for itself;another is able to understand the thinking of others;and a third can neither understand for itself nor understand thinking of others",Niccolo Machiavelli in 'The Prince'.Replace mind with government in the third kind and ponder over .Governments are mascots,real faces we never see.