What about the innocent men, women and children who are caught up in a deadly conflict, what about them? Don’t they matter? Why aren’t they reported? Comments like these tell us that in some way American lives are more important, that it matters not if an Iraqi is killed. It seems that when an American soldier is killed it is a tragedy but when an Iraqi dies it means nothing, hell, we don’t even count them. It’s almost like killing an insect that annoys us, except that we are not talking about insects we are talking about human beings who have family and loved ones, who in many ways are just like us, with family and friends who are just trying to do they best they can in the worst possible situation.
Why when an Iraqi is killed it doesn’t even make the news. At what point did we lose our compassion? At what point did we stop being human and caring for our fellow man regardless of political, racial or religious persuasion.
It is a sad day indeed when we put our cause (whatever that maybe) above our love for our fellow man. It is a little known fact that since the invasion of Iraq that although the American soldier’s body count stands at around 2,000 killed the Iraqi body count is something like 27,000 but we are not talking Iraqi soldiers, we are talking civilians.
The major distinction that needs to be made is between civilians and soldiers. Most people know the risks of being a soldier, but what about a civilian? I don’t think that some poor Iraqi who is going to the local shop to buy bread for his family should be at risk of being killed, I certainly don’t think that I am at risk of dying when I go to the corner store to buy bread and milk.
I guess by not counting the bodies of “other people” we don’t allow ourselves to think that maybe, just maybe they are human beings like us, who think, feel and act just as we do, who have family and friends whom they love dearly just as we do. Who like most of us are just trying to make a living, feed their families, raise their kids and generally live a long and happy life just like us?
They say that ignorance is bliss and by not counting all and I mean all the people who die in conflicts it helps us sleep at night. I mean heaven forbid if the other people counted, it might force us to think twice about why we are at war, but most of all it would make us think about our fellow man and maybe see war for what it really is the killing of people!
There are no winners in a war, not in the past, not in the present and I’m sure there won’t be in the future.
“We don’t do body counts”
General Tommy Franks, US Central Command.
“Well we don’t do body counts on other people”
US Secretary of Defence Donald H Rumsfeld, November 2, 2003.
Body Count
These lines uttered are in themselves a crime against humanity. Let me get this straight, you only count the bodies of American soldiers that are killed in armed conflict?
The point I am trying to make here is why we don’t count all the victims of a conflict so that we can gain a truer indication of the horrors of war.
written and illustrated by Redi25
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