Children – the ultimate victims of war

Tahseen Rashid :
It’s 12 o’clock. Do you know what that means? It means that at least one child just died in Gaza in the past hour. Well that’s the stat the UN gave in their latest report regarding the war between Israel and Palestine. Over the past few weeks the world’s focus has been on two small countries located in the Middle East. One country has a land area of around 6,000km square, while the other has an area of around 21,000 km square; together amassing near about 27,000 square kilometer. This is one-fifth of the size of Bangladesh, which is a country considered pretty small in the world.The smaller of these two counties is known as Palestine. This country hosts a small strip of land known as Gaza. Gaza is located to the east of the Mediterranean and is bordered by Egypt and Israel. It consists of a land area half the size of Dhaka. With a population of 1.8 million, it is prone to mass destruction and that has been exactly the case. Each child is born innocent. They are born without any evil, treachery or deceit in their hearts. Each child who has died due to these ongoing inhumane acts of violence, all deserve to go to Heaven and I believe they will obtain so. Each story one hears about these merciless acts, the more helpless they feel. None of these children had said anything against their attackers, moreover do anything against them. Most of them were just carrying out routine schedule of maybe playing in a field, reading a book or sleeping in their mother’s lap.Modern wars are exploiting, maiming and killing children more callously and more systematically than ever. Children are the effected most in wars because they are the people who have a lifetime to live. So, if they are the ones physically disabled, mentally traumatized or exposed to radiation they will be the ones suffering for their whole lives. In every single war we are losing a generation altogether. For example, only in the Syrian war there were 2 million child victims. Over the last few decades many people had raised their voices against the killing of helpless boys and girls. Among them Graca Machel(1996), the former Minister for Education in Mozambique, strongly voiced that, “War violates every right of a child – the right to life, the right to be with family and community, the right to health, the right to the development of the personality and the right to be nurtured and protected.” While in the recent past, Pope Francis of Argentina expressed his deep concern and called on warring parties in the Middle East, to put an end to the violence which is wounding and killing countless children.Recent developments in warfare have significantly heightened the dangers for children. During the last decade, it is estimated that around 2 million children have been killed; 4-5 million physically disabled, 12 million children left homeless, more than 1 million orphaned or separated from their parents and around10 million children psychologically traumatized.All these figures are increasing right now. So, by the time you read this article a few more children might have become homeless, been killed or amputated.In grade 2, when we first started having history lessons, the first thing our teacher said to us was that the point of learning history was to learn from the mistakes people made in the past, and not to repeat those mistakes. Right from the time we started learning about the crustaceous period to Homo erectus and the world wars, these words were echoed in the class room. But looking at the current situation I think these words were either, never echoed outside the classroom or the leaders of countries such as Israel never attended their history classes.History has taught us something unique: the more civilized we become the more barbaric we get. The more we know about science the more the destruction. As we have learnt to wear clothes, we have also learned to kill animals. As we learnt about the benefits of nuclear energy, we also discovered the atom bomb, whose invention led to the murder of millions in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the amputation or impairment of generations of family. After the devastation of World War I the League of Nations was formed. The League of Nations was a body of nations whose main function was to provide a forum for resolving international disputes and make sure war did not walk the earth again. But mankind by nature again defied the laws and history came across World War II. Thereafter, the United Nations replaced the ineffective League of Nations. The function of the UN was to promote peace, security, and economic development. Other than the UN and its bodies, many non-government international organizations exist to promote peace, human rights, etc such as the likes of Save the Children, Oxfam, Red Cross, Action Aid, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Despite the never-ending effort from these organizations the strength of superpowers such as America condenses the equality and fairness. Historically, in all the wars around the world the might of the superpowers has taken its toll. These countries work only for their personal economic or political interests. For example in the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine, Uncle Sam, despite knowing that he was going against everything the world was striving for, decided to back Israel to preserve his financial interests and economic ties with the country, by providing them with a vast amount of military aid. He had signed a deal with Israel saying that between 2008 and 2019, the United States will provide military aid worth around $30 billion to Israel.The superpowers all like to take advantage of the countries in wars by getting involved in the trading of war weapons, post war reconstruction, occupation of valuable resource grounds and establishing military, political and economic control. For example, former US Vice-president Dick Cheney’s oil field service company, Halliburton made $39.5 Billion from the Iraq War. What is the point of killing or amputating these innocent children who have no intention of disposing the enemy? Why can’t the matter be dealt with in meetings, court, etc? Why does a verbal matter have to become physical? Why do thousands have to die for preposterous stupid reasons? These are the questions that matter and the questions that need to be answered, before there is nothing left to save.I have written this article to ask the people who matter, to stop and think for a moment about what they are doing and why they are doing it; and to think about the lives that are being lost while doing these things, and most of all, think about the children that are crying and dying while they are carrying out their acts of terror. This article may never reach the people that matter but if you have understood my message, than you will stand up; because only one voice will never be able to stop anything. (Tahseen Rashid can be reached at Email: [email protected])