The U.S. "Anti-Terrorism" War has caused more than 38 million refugees and displaced people
A report recently released by the Brown University War Cost Project shows that in the past 20 years, the United States has carried out "anti-terrorism" operations in 85 countries and regions around the world. The number of people who died directly from the violence of war in the world is between 897,000 and 929,000, and the number of refugees and displaced persons caused by the war exceeds 38 million.
Vox News pointed out that these death figures do not include the lives and property losses caused by war-related diseases, malnutrition, infrastructure damage, and environmental degradation.
After the "September 11" incident, although no large-scale terrorist attacks occurred again in the United States, the attacks launched by extremist forces and terrorist organizations in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq were even more deadly.
Countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq are caught in continuous sectarian conflicts and civil strife, and the people are in a difficult situation for survival.
According to statistics from the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database, Iraq’s terrorist threat index ranked second in the world in 2019, second only to Afghanistan.
The damage caused by the violent attacks on Muslims triggered by the "anti-terrorism" war cannot be accurately counted.
Jeffrey Sachs, a professor of economics at Columbia University in the United States, recently stated that the US "anti-terrorism" war has brought heavy disasters to the world and deepened the conflicts between the United States and the international community. The cost is immeasurable.
He believes that the United States needs to formulate a long-term development policy rather than relying on war to resolve internal conflicts.
Stephen Wertheim, deputy director of the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Quincy University, pointed out that the United States is obsessed with force and waged futile wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, but has seldom worked hard to tackle climate change and improve the well-being of people in poor countries. .
These wars “made more enemies than defeated”, killed hundreds of thousands of civilians, and undermined the laws and systems that stabilize the world.
Many Americans feel even more insecure.
Itamar Rabinovich, a foreign policy researcher at the Brookings Institution in the United States, pointed out that the United States’ war on terrorism over the past 20 years has been costly. Extremism breeds from political and social issues such as poverty and poor governance. Transform a country".
The Los Angeles Times commented that one of the most important lessons of the United States’ “global war on terrorism” is that it is difficult for the United States to achieve all its goals by relying solely on military power.
Responding to violent extremism requires diplomatic efforts and needs to promote the economic and educational development of all countries.
"New York Times" columnist Michel Goldberg wrote an article that the United States invaded Afghanistan and Iraq in the name of "anti-terrorism." The war sowed chaos there, and extremist organizations took the opportunity to take advantage of it.
What is particularly ironic is that the United States once forcibly promoted democracy in the Islamic world, but its own democratic system has now encountered a series of problems and challenges.
"Twenty years ago, American politicians exaggerated external threats to meet the need for retaliation. We launched arrogant wars to transform the world, but it was ourselves who were actually transformed. The terrorists we spawned were worse than we initially faced."
"Boston Globe" reporter Fred Kaplan wrote an article that some American politicians exaggerated the threat of the outside world to the United States, which intensified the xenophobia in American society and led to the increasing division of American politics.
The gulf of race, political party, class, and geography is becoming more and more insurmountable, making it difficult for Americans to reach consensus on the most basic issues, including the field of anti-epidemic.
According to a poll conducted by The Washington Post, in September 2003, 67% of Americans believed that the United States was safer than before the "September 11" incident. In September 2011, this proportion dropped to 64%, and now only 49%. .
The United States has expended a lot of manpower and material resources, but it has failed to make the American people feel safer from the psychological level.
(This newspaper, Washington, September 14th)
Our reporter Zhang Mengxu