War in this decade

War is one of the subjects that have become a main topic of concern for the world. Since mankind has existed, so has war. It has been the cause of destruction of villages and countries, humans, environment, and the way we live and think. Wars have changed people physically, emotionally and psychologically. It is one of the main factors contributing to psychological problems in most of the third world countries where war is an everyday thing. Nations and their leaders have gone to war for land, natural resources, wealth and sometimes even hatred. Over the centuries people have learned to just fight even better, to use smarter weapons than before, but not to learn to stop it from happening. The leaders of such nations do not realize that they are killing humanity to gain resources and land for the purpose of showing their strength. What they do not realize is that it the resources they are trying to gain at the cost of human life will not last forever, nor will the leaders who make these decisions. War has been a contribution to the deterioration of environment, increase in diseases in human health, and a contribution to numerous negative effects on children. The environment has been disturbed by the wars over time, but the nuclear weapons have been the most destructive to the atmosphere. War has led to increases in different types of physical and psychological diseases over the centuries. Most of these psychological diseases are worse in children of war. To the governments and leaders war is a way to spread democracy, to get humans their rights and to save the world from further nuclear destruction. Actually war is humans killing other fellow humans, innocent dying in front of their loved ones, children being used in wars for spying and fighting, and children seeing their parents dying in front of them. It is not to spread fairness, but it is an act that is teaching humans to hate each other over things that are not going to last forever. War is the end of humanity.
The environment has been contaminated by the wars over the centuries. The use of weapons, igniting oil fields, using different types of chemicals in war have contaminated the air, water and soil (http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-effects-war.htm). The introduction of nuclear weapons has been the most destructive to the land and environment. The use of bombs in wars has contributed to contamination of earth with chemicals and the chemicals scattered from the industrial and military areas that had been targeted. A bomb can create temperatures of around 3,000 degrees Celsius which wherever it travels it kills everything in its way, even the microorganisms in the soil. This type of poisoning will last for decades or even longer, because it is difficult to pinpoint what area was affected when the bomb scatters the chemicals in all directions all over the targeted area (http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/environment/19141/1). The places that wars occurred at are still suffering after decades of peace. There is no peace for the individuals who are victims of war or had lost loved ones during war. The places that have been affected are still contaminated or have not been able to come back to their full natural state. A German officer in 1918 describes scattered trees in Flanders fields which are still there where once villages existed and with no grass in sight till today. As far as the eye can see there is empty land where ploughs still turn up human bones every year (http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/st_environment.html). On a smaller scale human life is disturbed where water and land has become contaminated. For people in third world countries whose main source of survival is agriculture it has been very difficult. They still live in the same areas as they cannot afford to relocate and drink the same contaminated water by chemicals (http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-effects-war.htm). Bombs had been the most destructive weapon until nuclear technology was invented. The first attacks were carried out by the United States on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The blasts had been so strong and had released strong amounts of radiation that had resulted in instant death for individuals within half a mile of the bomb. These areas are still active with radiation where no greenery grows. These attacks killed hundreds of people instantly and more and more people died over the next five years from its long term effects (http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/pubs/82cab/index.html). More recently the attacks on the Twin Towers in United States had been another step towards the destruction of mankind. Along with the death of thousands of innocent people, the environment suffered plenty. The rubble burned for more than three months after the actual incident which resulted in a release of gaseous and particulate particles (http://www.lenntech.com/environmental-effects-war.htm). Another example of land destruction is by the use of military equipment which results in soil erosion, poor water quality, and lack in proper food production. During the decades of civil wars in Cambodia thirty-five percent of its intact forests were destroyed (http://www.sierraclub.ca/national/postings/war-and-environment.html). Therefore, war has only given the environment destruction either in short term, small contaminations, or in the long run, cities where radiation is still active after decades of the initial attacks.
During the war humans had suffered the most. They have paid with their lives, the lives of their loved ones, with the loss of their homeland and further effects that last in the long run. Wars over time have spread diseases that had become plagues. The people who survived wars died of these plagues. The contamination of chemicals and other war related instruments have created short and long term problems for humans. The areas where nuclear weapons were exploded the radiation to date still affect it. People who were there have suffered for years with diseases that had either taken their life or had made them suffer for a long time. These kinds of chemicals, if exposed to, results in miscarriages, malformed foetuses, high infant mortality and congenital disorders, leukaemia and other cancers, tumours, thyroid disorders, and complex debilitating and life shortening syndromes ((http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/st_environment.html). Furthermore, one of the short term lethal effects of nuclear chemicals can cause gastrointestinal death where a dose of radiation between 10 and 50 gray can do the damage. Those exposed to 50 gray of radiation can die from the central nervous system death. Another health problem is when radiation enters the bone marrow at a dose of 2 to 10 gray, red and white blood cells are not made which results in haemorrhage. In the long term it can cause cataract and cancer induction. Moreover, the infectious diseases such as dysentery, infectious hepatitis, salmonellosis, cholera, meningococcal meningitis, tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, and pneumonia are one of the worst long term effects of nuclear chemicals (http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/resources/factsheets/health.html). The physical effects of war are numerous, but there are also the psychological effects that sometimes are hard to cure. People who have seen their loved ones die, or lose part of their bodies, or suffer with diseases directly caused by war can become mentally unstable. Especially children who have been through war do through depression and usually have no self confidence. Children whose parents have been taken away grow up with insecurity and memories that might be hard to get rid of. This all results to a disorder classified as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which was first introduced after the Vietnam War (http://mentalhealth.about.com/cs/traumaptsd/a/trauma.htm). Where was has taken away lives it has also given a long lasting suffering for the ones that became sick from it and the loved ones of those that are sick. Along with physical pain it has given emotional pain and psychological instability. Still today, there is war in different parts of the world between nations that do not think with this view, but it is even occurring in nations that are advanced and know all about the effects of war. War is not the solution to the problems that nature does not provide to one nation and provides to another nation. War is the destruction of this world and of mankind.
War has given suffering to humans in many forms. For adults this suffering is comprehensible, for the elderly it is devastating, but for the children it is an image that they will live with for the rest of their lives. Children are affected by war in the most severe manor. Their minds are young and the trauma that they go through shapes how they perceive the world and affects how they will shape their own future or personality. During war children are orphaned, injured, become temporarily or permanently handicapped, get diseases, become associated with different types of disorders, lose their trust in elders, used as soldiers in war, physically and psychologically abused and so on; this list can be endless counting the amount of negativity that war brings upon children. According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), 2 million children have been killed by conflict over the last decade; 6 million children have been made homeless; 12 million have been injured or disabled; and there are at least 300,000 child soldiers operating in 30 different conflicts across the globe. (http://www.redcross.int/EN/mag/magazine2003_3/4-9.html) When the soldiers are putting traps and hidden bombs their target if the enemy, but during this time the most amount of people that suffer are the innocent. Eighty percent of landmine victims are civilians and nearly a quarter of those are children (http://www.ppu.org.uk/learn/infodocs/st_environment.html). In the wars fought by the developed countries in third world countries, the soldiers are deployed to the war torn countries are not expecting what they face. Thus, when they come back they are suffering from the images that have been left in their mind. If a grownup who has spent years training to face these situations is suffering then a child cannot even imagine coping with it. The children that are not suffering directly from the war are being affected indirectly. The children of soldiers are being affected when their father goes to war, or when their mother takes out her frustration on them and so on. The amount of stress the partner of a soldier faces leads to these happenings (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/560765). Doctors can fix the wounds of the children or give them artificial limbs to erase their helplessness, but they cannot take away the scars that are on their heart or bring back their loved ones or give them back the security of their life before the war (http://www.redcross.int/EN/mag/magazine2003_3/4-9.html) . Hence, children suffer and are still suffering while the leaders of different nations in the world continue to ignore them, mistreat them, and snatch their world right before their eyes.
From the World War I to the current United States wars on Iraq and Afghanistan there has been nothing gained but sorrows, death, and later on regret. When history of wars has been written there are numerous acts that have been seen as inhumane. After this time passes the future will see these current wars as inhumane and unjust. Humans are being taught to kill their fellow humans on the cost of their own life, grief and worry for their loved ones, and time spent in hatred rather than peace and harmony. The environment has suffered and continues to suffer when the chemicals and machinery used in war affects the atmosphere. The areas that the nuclear weapons have been used are still suffering from the affects after over half a century later. In the place greenery still seizes to grow. New and new diseases had come into being during and after the war. The people that did not directly die from the war died afterwards from different health problems that were caused by war. The elderly saw a different world when it was their time to have a peaceful retired life, the young people died without having to enjoy their lives, and the children did not even begin their life and it ended. The ones that survived suffered with illnesses, spent year rebuilding their lives, relocating their homes, coping up with their lost family members and so on. Anywhere war has happened it has been the most difficult thing to cope with as humans and as a nation. War is just a sophisticated word for killing and where killing is actually murdering over resources that are not superior than one’s own life. Thus, war in other words is the murder of humanity.