by banknotelover

Created on: April 22, 2009

Before I begin my stand, I would like to say that this concept about "accidental killing of civilians" can be applied to any other war, not just the war on terrorism, fought by any other army, because the US Armed Forces is not the only military force that is involved in wars now.

I think that accidental killing of civilians in any war is unavoidable. No matter how the war plays out, civilians will always be caught up in the war either accidentally or intentionally, because it can be to the opposing army's advantage to have civilians die in the war.

I shall now move on to talk about the war on terrorism. Tens of thousands of civilians have already died in the war against terrorism. Civilian and combatant casualties of the war in Iraq have amounted to anywhere between 946,000 to 1.12 million, and civilian casualties are anything between 91,000 to 99,000, according to http://www.iraqbodycount.org/. In Afghanistan, in the first three months of Operation Enduring Freedom, at least 1,000 to 1,300 civilians were killed in aerial bombing, and in Somalia, upwards of 6,500 civilians have died. These are all innocent lives that just happened to be caught up in an unfortunate war, where any side of the conflict can use civilian killings to their advantage.

Wars are most unfortunate and are best avoided. Accidental killings of civilians are always going to happen, because when you bomb a city filled with your enemies, e.g Kabul in Afghanistan, there will surely be at least one or two civilians that are going to be killed. It is impossible to avoid civilian killings in a war, no matter what kind of new technology that is invented.

Civilians always get killed in the war because of many reasons, including inability to flee the war zone in time or refusing to leave the war zone because of sentimental ties. Because of this, there will be civilians in any war zone past, present or future. So, accidental killings of civilians cannot be avoided. Carpet bombing, for example, will kill any enemy or civilian in its path, because the weapon is unable to distinguish between civilian or combatant. Even if a weapon which could distinguish either was invented, how would it be able to do so? It is just not possible. Therefore, it would be impossible to avoid accidental killings in war.

So, to end off, I would want to reiterate my stand. I agree that civilian killings in war are unavoidable, because of the fact that it is impossible to prevent such killings, no matter what new technology is invented, and because civilians will always be present in any war zone, because of various reasons, and in a war zone, you would be very lucky not to be killed.

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