25, May
2017 Manchester Bombing
While the
horrific suicide attack in Manchester has dominated international headlines,
little attention has been paid to civilian casualties in the perpetual “war on
terror”.
Recent US
airstrikes in Syria and Iraq have killed dozens of civilians during the past
week. In Yemen, the human rights group, Reprieve, says U.S. Navy SEALs killed
five civilians during a raid Tuesday night on a village in Ma’rib governorate.
The journalistic
monitoring group, Airwars, says airstrikes on Sunday and Monday reportedly
killed up to 44 civilians in Mosul, mostly women and children.
The Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights says U.S.-led airstrikes have killed 225 civilians over the
past month, including 44 children.
Sadly, victims in
conflict zones receive little media attention. It’s kept very ethereal, very
distant and abstract. We never learn their names; we never hear the wailing
cries from their families. One wonders whether such appalling deaths are the
emotional driving force which motives Muslim youngsters on their suicide
missions. Britain, the US and other western nations have been guilty of
flooding the Middle East with billions of weapons which fuel the never ending
cycle of death and destruction. This must stop. These wars are routed in
centuries old conflict between Shias and Sunnis and the US and other western
nations should remain neutral, otherwise we can only expect more “Manchester
style” blowback tragedies. Finally, Muslim Imams need to do much more in
“policing” their own youngsters and pruning their scriptures from hateful
passages which justify killing infidels.
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