Tuesday, May 02, 2006
1/3 of the world is at war
1/3 of the world is at war.
Information taken from "50 Facts That Should Change the World" by Jessica Williams.
Project Ploughshares reported that in 2002, 30 countries around the world were engaged in long-term conflict; a total of 2.29 billion people were engaged in warfare. Project Ploughshares compiles a list of armed conflicts annually, and defines armed conflict as "a political conflict involving armed combat between armed forces of at least one state, or one or more armed factions seeking to gain control of all or part of a state." Armed conflict must also involve a minimum of 1,000 people. There were 37 armed conflicts in 2002, all of which were civil wars.
1/3 of the world is at war in present; this doesn't even factor in war-torn countries, where people are struggling to rebuild what war has destroyed. For instance, during the Vietnam War American troops sprayed the defoiliant Agent Orange over jungle areas and agricultural lands- 25 years later those areas are still contaminated and are unable to produce crops. 2/3's of Kuwaits aquifers- a major source of drinking water- are still polluted from oil spilled from the First Gulf War. NATO bombing campaigns in Kosovo targeted chemical and oil refineries. This resulted in black rain in several cities including Pancevo- effectively releasing carcinogenic chemicals like dioxin in concentrations hundreds of thousands of times above the safe level- that poisoned the crops grown there and the people that consumed them.
Unimpeded humanitarian access and specialized judicial courts are necessary to pull these war-torn countries out of the cycle of death and destruction, but powerful countries likes those that sit on the Security Council of the UN need to hold countries accountable. The UN countries need to square with these countries and ensure that full humanitarian access is granted and protected and that there is a judicial system to reconcile with the battered civilian population.
US President Dwight Eisenhower once said, "Everyone gun that is made, every warshipped launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Information taken from "50 Facts That Should Change the World" by Jessica Williams.
Project Ploughshares reported that in 2002, 30 countries around the world were engaged in long-term conflict; a total of 2.29 billion people were engaged in warfare. Project Ploughshares compiles a list of armed conflicts annually, and defines armed conflict as "a political conflict involving armed combat between armed forces of at least one state, or one or more armed factions seeking to gain control of all or part of a state." Armed conflict must also involve a minimum of 1,000 people. There were 37 armed conflicts in 2002, all of which were civil wars.
1/3 of the world is at war in present; this doesn't even factor in war-torn countries, where people are struggling to rebuild what war has destroyed. For instance, during the Vietnam War American troops sprayed the defoiliant Agent Orange over jungle areas and agricultural lands- 25 years later those areas are still contaminated and are unable to produce crops. 2/3's of Kuwaits aquifers- a major source of drinking water- are still polluted from oil spilled from the First Gulf War. NATO bombing campaigns in Kosovo targeted chemical and oil refineries. This resulted in black rain in several cities including Pancevo- effectively releasing carcinogenic chemicals like dioxin in concentrations hundreds of thousands of times above the safe level- that poisoned the crops grown there and the people that consumed them.
Unimpeded humanitarian access and specialized judicial courts are necessary to pull these war-torn countries out of the cycle of death and destruction, but powerful countries likes those that sit on the Security Council of the UN need to hold countries accountable. The UN countries need to square with these countries and ensure that full humanitarian access is granted and protected and that there is a judicial system to reconcile with the battered civilian population.
US President Dwight Eisenhower once said, "Everyone gun that is made, every warshipped launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
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Well, I've just ran to your post...
I'm from Pancevo, and I've been there during the whole bombing thing.
Thanks to American government I'll probably die out of cancer at age 35.
But untill than, I'm sending you best regards from my little poisoned town.
=)
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I'm from Pancevo, and I've been there during the whole bombing thing.
Thanks to American government I'll probably die out of cancer at age 35.
But untill than, I'm sending you best regards from my little poisoned town.
=)
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