Why are So Many Civilians Dying?
"THIS much is all but certain: when bombs fall, some of them will fall on the wrong people. Sometimes innocents are killed, in what is coolly referred to as collateral damage."
In Cushman Jr.'s War's Hidden Cause, He stresses the fact that since this country has gone to war with Afghanistan and wars before we have been killing mass numbers of women and children. Without a doubt civilians will be killed but today should the numbers be so great? The American public expects pinpoint precision but no bomb is guaranteed to hit its exact target. In this Article Cushman Jr. writes about how many families have lost members and how many people are killed off at a certain place and time. If these targets are supposed to be checked, leaving civilians out of harm, why are so many dying? This can in no way be considered as "collateral damage."
In Cushman Jr.'s War's Hidden Cause, He stresses the fact that since this country has gone to war with Afghanistan and wars before we have been killing mass numbers of women and children. Without a doubt civilians will be killed but today should the numbers be so great? The American public expects pinpoint precision but no bomb is guaranteed to hit its exact target. In this Article Cushman Jr. writes about how many families have lost members and how many people are killed off at a certain place and time. If these targets are supposed to be checked, leaving civilians out of harm, why are so many dying? This can in no way be considered as "collateral damage."
posted by Maureen Lacossiere at 2:46 PM
2 Comments:
I am officially a victim of mass persuasion. During class today I learned that this war in Iraq and Afghanistan has killed the least civilians ever in war. ALso that the bomb/missle precision is better than it has ever been before. After reading Cushman Jr.'s article I was moved by his story telling of the families in Afghanistan that lost their loved ones, and the women and children that were killed, that the numbers included in this article seemed to be increasingly high. Realistically the number of civilians killed are drastically lower than every other war, making this war the least bloody.
A good post and a good comment.
Casualty figures can be maximized or minimized according to the coverage and how they are put into context.
We need to understand how casualty figures can be used as a way to argue about the war. Both sides try to spin this issue.
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