Korean War, Vietnam War, Afghanistan War … Today, let’s briefly review many wars launched by the United States after World War II to see what kind of war crimes this "world’s biggest source of chaos" has committed.
Korean War
Overview-On June 25th, 1950, Korean Civil War broke out. The Truman administration of the United States brazenly intervened with its Cold War mentality and ambition to dominate the world and contain communism, and rallied the so-called "United Nations forces" to launch an all-out war against the DPRK. On July 27, 1953, the Korean Armistice Agreement was signed, and the three-year Korean War ended.
Loss-Although the Korean War was short but extremely bloody, more than 3 million civilians died and about 3 million people became refugees. According to the statistics of the DPRK, the war destroyed about 8,700 factories, 5,000 schools, 1,000 hospitals and 600,000 families, and 2 million children under the age of 18 were displaced by the war.
According to the data, the US military secretly carried out germ warfare in northern Korea and parts of northeastern China. O ‘Neill, a prisoner of the US Air Force, said in his confession: "The US military chose to start germ warfare in winter … to test the cold-resistant germ weapons we made in a special laboratory. The ultimate goal is to use these bacterial weapons in germ warfare against countries with cold climates such as the Soviet Union and people’s democratic countries. "
Voice-"This is a wrong war with the wrong enemy at the wrong place and time." Omar bradley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
This is a Korean child who was injured in the Korean War. Xinhua news agency
Vietnam War
Overview-In 1955, the Vietnam War broke out. During the war, the United States fostered the pro-American regime in South Vietnam against North Vietnam. On May 14th, 1961, American "Special Operations Forces" invaded South Vietnam. On April 30, 1975, the last US helicopter left Saigon.
Losses-The Vietnam War killed 2 million civilians and displaced more than 3 million refugees. The US military is throwing about 20 million gallons of defoliants (orange agent), resulting in 400,000 Vietnamese deaths and 2 million Vietnamese suffering from cancer or other diseases. The US military is still leaving behind about 350,000 tons of explosive bombs and mines, and it is estimated that it will still take 300 years to completely remove them.
In March 1968, American soldiers slaughtered more than 500 people, including men, women and children, in Mylai village, Vietnam’s generalized province. This was the Mylai village massacre that shocked the world. According to the Los Angeles Times, in addition to the massacre in Mylai Village, there were at least 320 other incidents in which American troops massacred Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War, killing nearly 700 civilians.
Voice-In his speech in front of the Vietnam War Memorial Wall in 2012, former US President Barack Obama said that the cost of war is huge, and it will cause serious casualties among innocent civilians. War itself is not glorious and should be rejected.
This is the wreckage of the US b-52 bomber displayed at the Vietnam Military Museum in Hanoi, Vietnam. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Gao Mengjin)
Kosovo War
Overview-On March 24th, 1999, NATO led by the United States brazenly bombed Yugoslavia without the authorization of the United Nations, under the banner of "preventing the humanitarian crisis in Kosovo", and the Kosovo war broke out. In June, NATO signed an armistice agreement with Yugoslavia, and Kosovo was temporarily entrusted by the United Nations.
Losses-The war killed more than 2,000 innocent civilians, injured more than 6,000 people, displaced nearly 1 million people, and lost more than 2 million people’s livelihood, resulting in economic losses of more than 200 billion US dollars to Yugoslavia. According to statistics, NATO troops used at least 31,000 depleted uranium bombs, which led to a sharp increase in the incidence of cancer and leukemia in this region and had a long-term disastrous impact on the local and European ecological environment.
Voice-German writer Michael Luders once wrote in his book that after the Kosovo War in 1999, NATO went beyond the principle of collective self-defense and launched a military operation against Yugoslavia, causing civilian casualties in the name of humanitarianism. This shows that in the eyes of the United States and the European Union, human rights are only a secondary concern, especially when human rights standards are only applied to non-allies.
On February 19, 2008, in the center of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, pedestrians walked past a building destroyed by air strikes during the Kosovo war. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wu Xiaoling photo
Afghanistan War
Overview-After the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001, the United States and its allies launched a military strike against Afghanistan in early October of that year on the grounds that the Taliban in Afghanistan refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, and quickly overthrew the Taliban regime and stationed troops for a long time. On August 30, 2021, local time, the last US military transport plane took off from Kabul International Airport. This "longest war in American history" ended in the sudden withdrawal of the US military.
Losses-According to statistics, 47,245 Afghan civilians and 66,000 to 69,000 Afghan soldiers and policemen unrelated to the "September 11th" incident were killed and more than 10 million people were displaced. The United Nations World Food Program warned in 2021 that about 98% of Afghans do not have enough food, and Afghanistan is facing "avalanche hunger and poverty".
During the war, U.S. warplanes bloodbath Laccagni village in Panjiwai district of Kandahar province and launched air strikes against it, killing 63 villagers, including a family of 17 people, and injuring dozens. The day before the complete withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. military fired missiles at a white car parked in the courtyard of a family in Kabul, killing a family of ten people, including seven children.
Voice-"The killing of civilians, including children, by the US military in air raids has exposed the hypocrisy of the so-called human rights defenders in the United States. The international community should condemn the US for trampling on human rights and bring the criminals to justice." A villager in Laccagni village expressed such anger.
On December 16, 2003, the US military patrolled Wardak province in central Afghanistan. The war in Afghanistan, which lasted for nearly 20 years, became the longest war in American history. Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Lei photo
Iraq War
Overview-In March 2003, the United States and its western allies invaded Iraq, bypassing the UN Security Council, on the grounds that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, despite the strong opposition of the international community. On August 18, 2010, the last US combat brigade left Iraq, marking the end of US military operations. On December 15, 2011, the United States officially announced the end of the US military mission in Iraq.
Loss-The war left the land that gave birth to the civilization of the two rivers riddled with holes, resulting in the death of about 200,000 to 250,000 civilians, of which more than 16,000 were directly killed by the US military. According to statistics, the total number of depleted uranium bombs exploded in Iraq exceeded 3,400 tons. Today, there are still about 25 million mines and other explosive remnants to be removed in Iraq. The Iraq war also broke the balance between the political forces in the Middle East after the Cold War, making the people’s livelihood in the region miserable and chaotic.
In November 2003, the Iraqi citizen Ala Karim Ahmed was arrested and imprisoned by the US military. In prison, American soldiers used police dogs, whips and shackles to force him to confess. According to Alla Karim Ahmed, at that time, the prison was often attacked by mortars from anti-American armed men. The US military could hide in bunkers, and the detainees had to resign themselves to fate. A shell landed in the prison, killing 37 people and injuring 104 others. In 2004, the photos of American soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were exposed, which shocked the world.
Voice-The website of American Atlantic Monthly once published: "Americans never really understand the cost of war, but they continue to fight. Only Iraqi civilians know the geometry of the cost of war."
A citizen of Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, once said sadly: "The United States has set Iraq back for 100 years."
On April 14th, 2003, dozens of American Black Hawk and Apache helicopter gunships arrived in Kuwait to take off from the port of Kuwait City to reinforce the Iraqi front. Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xiaoguo photo
[Syrian War]
Overview-When the civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, the United States and its western allies strongly supported the opposition armed forces and tried to overthrow the Syrian government. In September 2014, the United States initiated the formation of an international alliance to combat the extremist organization "Islamic State", expanded the scope of air strikes against the target of "Islamic State" from Iraq to Syria, and established several military bases in eastern Syria. Since 2017, the United States has launched an air strike against Syria on the grounds of "preventing the Syrian government from using chemical weapons."
Loss-From 2016 to 2019, there were 33,584 recorded civilians who died in the war in Syria. Among them, 3833 people were directly killed by the bombing of the United States-led Coalition forces, half of whom were women and children. According to the American public television network, the so-called "most accurate air strike in history" launched by the US military alone killed 1,600 Syrian civilians. The war has caused the people’s livelihood in Syria to wither. According to a survey conducted by the World Food Program in April 2020, about one-third of Syrians do not have enough food, and 87% of them have no savings.
Voice-Syrian political activist Wada Issa once said: "They (the United States) steal our resources here, create chaos and wreak havoc, and even have the nerve to call themselves the’ savior’ of the suffering Syrian people."
On September 1, 2016, several Syrian children sat in front of the Harjele refugee camp in the southern suburbs of Damascus, the Syrian capital. Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Yushe
According to the data of the "War Cost" project of Watson Institute of Brown University in the United States, the total number of military and civilian deaths caused by the war launched by the United States in the "post-9.11 era" is as high as 929,000, and at least 38 million people have been displaced, and this is only a "very conservative estimate", and the actual number may be between 49 million and 60 million.
In addition to directly launching or participating in wars, the United States frequently interferes in other countries’ internal affairs by directly or indirectly supporting proxy war, inciting other countries’ civil wars, providing weapons and ammunition, and training anti-government armed forces, which seriously damages the social stability, public safety and healthy economic development of the countries concerned.
"The biggest source of chaos in the world", the United States deserves its name!
Editor-in-Chief: Gu Wanquan, Zhang Wu
Text Editor: Song Hui
Author: Xinhua News Agency client
