A Syrian Civil Defense member carrying a wounded child in the besieged town of Hamoria, in Eastern Ghouta, last month. Reuters
A woman screams while fleeing with her family through a destroyed alley in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq, Sunday, July 2, 2017. AP
An injured Syrian woman arrives at a field hospital following an air strike that hit her home in the town of Azaz, on the outskirts of Aleppo on August 15, 2012. AP

The ongoing legacy OF WAR

Human casualties are war’s first, principal and defining outcome; but there are also other casualties, including the conditions that make life good, safe, and worth living.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq almost 15 years ago in March 2003, the daily violence that started with our invasion continues to this day; death by bomb, death by sword, death by rock, death by torture. … The violence is evident in the burnt-out car that concealed the bomb, the blackened building where the explosion happened, the blood staining the pavement, the wreckage of the market stall where the IED was planted, the bullet holes and shrapnel through concrete, through metal and through flesh.

Since March 2003, nearly 180,000 civilians have lost their lives in Iraq with the total violent deaths including combatants now up to 268,000. The dead are civilians, soldiers, insurgents, terrorists; they are Iraqi, American, British, Italian, Sunni, Shia, Yazidi, Kurdish; killed while fighting, shopping, walking, sleeping…

Another casualty continues to be the Iraqi state, a state characterized by sectarian conflict, economic debilitation and violence, a state reliant on external intervention and support. 

Another casualty: millions of children have grown up in daily violence, bombings and shootings, lack of education, poverty and fear, witnessing violent death as part of a ‘normal’ life. How will the trauma of war affect their lives?

And another tragic casualty seems to be any hope for a path to peace. Hope is slowly dying, along with thousands of innocents.

As wars continue to tear Iraq and its people apart — “How many more people, dreams and ideals will be sacrificed at the altar of this power struggle?” Whether moral, immoral or amoral, these wars have resulted in an endless cycle of violence, recriminations, enmity, suffering and death. Year by year, old wars continue to rage, while new wars are declared and justified. Old enemies remain, new enemies are created.

– adapted from an address given by Lily Hamourtziadou March 19, 2016

Sources:
– Lily Hamourtziadou, Iraq: Wars and Casualties, 13 Years On, www.iraqbodycount.org

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