In 30 years of civil unrest
just over 3,000 people died in Northern Ireland,
where there is a road called Kennedy Way
named after the American president
who started the Viêt-Nam war and invaded Cuba.
Over 30,000 civilians were killed in Viêt-Nam
plus an uncountable number of Viêt-Cong fighters.
Another 30,000 were killed in Cambodia.
Just over 3,000 people died in the amazing, unprecedented suicide/aeroplane assault upon the symbols of economic power
in Manhattan, and the 'military-industrial' complex
condemned by Kennedy's soldier-predecessor*.
In reprisal
47,000 civilians were killed in Afghanistan,
and 66,000 Afghan military and police
and 51,000 Taliban.
This rather exceeds an eye for an eye.
And I do not mention the thousands killed
in "proxy wars" waged by thge USA
in Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua,
nor the forced removal by the British at the USA's request
of the entire population of Diego Garcia and other
island of the Chagos Archipelago
reminiscent of Stalin's deportation of the Tatars from Crimea.
*Eisenhower
4 comments:
I am petitioning the mayor of my little French town to re-name my street Ben Laden Drive.
30.000 dead civilians in Vietnam does sound like a very conservative estimate.
Edit: For what wikipedia is worth:
"RJ Rummel estimated that American forces killed around 5,500 people in democide between 1960 and 1972, from a range of between 4,000 and 10,000.[27] Estimates for the number of North Vietnamese civilian deaths resulting from US bombing range from 30,000–65,000.[28][4] Higher estimates place the number of civilian deaths caused by American bombing of North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder at 182,000.[29] American bombing in Cambodia is estimated to have killed between 30,000 and 150,000 civilians and combatants.[25][30]
18.2 million gallons of Agent Orange, some of which was contaminated with Dioxin, was sprayed by the U.S. military over more than 10% of Southern Vietnam[31] as part of the U.S. herbicidal warfare program Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War, from 1961 to 1971. Vietnam's government claimed that 400,000 people were killed or maimed as a result of after effects, and that 500,000 children were born with birth defects.[32] The United States government has challenged these figures as being unreliable.[33] "
Indeed, I didn't mention Cambodia. I didn't want to make my little blog too long so I didn't mention Agent Orange, etc. (I was also going with the threes !)
... and for "this", I was kicked off Facebook and my computer hacked.
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