
Amnesty research reveals the civilian toll of bombings by US-led forces in Syria - YeGoblynQueenne
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/05/british-us-airstrikes-raqqa-civilians-killed
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morsch
_" We’re dealing with real human beings who are suffering and dying and being
tortured and starving because of policies that we are involved in. We, as
citizens of democratic societies, are directly involved in and are responsible
for. And what the media are doing is insuring that we do not act on our
responsibilities, and that the interests of power are served, not the needs of
the suffering people, and not even the needs of American people who would be
horrified if they realized the blood that is dripping from their hands because
of the way they are allowing themselves to be deluded and manipulated by this
system."_

~~~
tjr225
The most troubling thing for me, as a typical millennial, is that my little
brother has lived his entire life with his nation engaged in some far off
"war" that consists of carpet bombing an entire region - and yet here (in the
US) there is absolutely no antiwar movement. Even the left wing media streams
start getting pumped up when the drums of war start pounding. And here I am,
paying my tax dollars to a government who spends half of their budget on
lining the pockets of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin all in the name of
"defense." I wish so deeply that this would change and yet I feel like all I
can do is leave comments like these on various websites.

There was some commenter on here who claimed to me that the citizens of the
United States vote on having a military like this, and I thought about it.
What are my alternatives? Who am I going to vote for that is antiwar? Every
candidate runs on a platform of less world conflict, gets into office, and
continues these policies of needless destruction whether that person is Bill
Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama, or Donald Trump. So, I'm not sure
exactly what choice the US citizen has in the matter. Left or right, it seems
like the entire spectrum is very much "pro war."

~~~
13of40
>my little brother has lived his entire life with his nation engaged in some
far off "war" that consists of carpet bombing an entire region - and yet here
(in the US) there is absolutely no antiwar movement

It's very weird to me that a society that currently has, for example, a huge
anti-gun movement, based on ideas like "every child deserves to grow up in a
safe community", would at the same time treat the deaths of 10,000 people as a
rounding error. But that's literally how we are.

~~~
tjr225
It is weird, but I think we deserve to be able to both want both a world
without needless war and safe communities for our children. Note that I'm not
necessarily anti 2nd Ammendment. But to your point, yes it is very weird. War
has become so normal that even your father in law or whatever will make
excuses for the Iraq War - even though we know now that it was started on
false premises.

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sbhn
Bullets and missiles are like printer ink. They are consumables. They are
subject to the economical laws of supply and demand. Well that’s money
changing hands, from one person to the next. I want to know who is getting all
that money.

~~~
cmurf
The military industrial complex. Those are publicly held companies, so
shareholders make that money. As a bulk of the national debt is due to
extracurricular military adventures, everyone who owns U.S. Treasury
securities, including the Social Security Administration who bought securities
with surpluses - literally every American is making some profit from this
system.

USA Inc.

~~~
sbhn
“Your either with us, or you’re against us”, Thats the confidence of Bush
noting that nobody can ever do anything about it. The ‘fear of the American’
and the constant self inflicted antagonism by it’s own media, has been so
effectively monetised, that it should probably be described as a self full
filling perpetual prophecy machine.

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woliveirajr
> Not all those hiding were Isis fighters. In fact, many were also hiding from
> Isis.

I'm very far from this war, from both sides of it. And I feel sorry for those
who are exactly in the middle, like a small creature between the sea and the
rocks.

~~~
mkirklions
I would hope that those people left Syria.

~~~
bjpbakker
To go where exactly? What countries are still actively taking in refugees from
this region?

Even now, still 55,000 people are stuck in a no-man's land in the region after
Jordan closed their border [0] (since June 2016).

[0] - [https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/1/8/jordan-
agree...](https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/1/8/jordan-agrees-to-
one-off-aid-drop-to-stranded-syrians)

~~~
cmurf
Lebanon took the vast majority, nearly doubling their population. The U.S. has
taken a fraction of 1% of those refugees, with the total number being less
than the daily mean number of deaths. The world's melting pot, a nation of
immigrants, has become one of the more anti-immigrant and anti-refugee in the
world.

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yread
I wonder if precision weapons actually increased proportion of civilian
casualties by giving commanders an illusion that they know what they're
bombing. Of course the nature of conflicts also changed completely.

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dvfjsdhgfv
The idea that you can bomb military targets and magically keep civilians safe
is terribly naive.

