A common space for harmonic peacemakers

Wounded Souls

There is no war can be just the finished

The Ossuary at Verdun Douamont

17 million deaths in the first world war
80 million victims in the second world war
24 155 deaths, according to WikiLeaks Afghan War Diary from the years 2004-2009 in July 2010
According to ORB (Opinion Research Business) in the period from March 2003 to August 2007 came 946000 - 1120000 Iraqis killed (January 2008).

The other view

Photographers and the war

For the captured Vietcong ... there is no equivication. They are firmly set in the honorable tradition of sacrificing one's life for one's country.

THE BATTLES FOR SAIGON. At Tet and again in May, the Vietcong struck Saigon. They aimed at the middle-class districts that were duly destroyed by United States firepower.

THE PROBLEM with "close" air and artillery support is that it can often be too close.

Personal hygiene particularly that of the Vietnamese was always a matter of great concern to Americans.

WOUNDED VIETCONG ... GI's often show a compassion for the enemy that springs from admiration of their dedication and bravery. This VC had a three-day-old stomach wound. He'd picked up his intestines and put them in an enamel cooking bowl (borrowed froma surprised farmer's wife) and strapped it around his middle. As he was being carried to the headquarters company for interrogation, he indicated he was thirsty. "OK, him VC, him drink dirty water," said the Vietnamese interpreter, pointing to the brown paddy-field. With real anger a GI told him to keep quiet, then mumbled, "Any soldier who can fight for three days with his insides out can drink from my canteen any time!"

MOTHER AND CHILD, shortly before being killed. A unit of the Americal Division operating in Quang Ngai Province six months before My Lai.

WOUNDED CHILDREN, who, like most civilian victims, had been hit by indiscriminately used U.S. firewpower. The boy below was on his way to church in a 'safe' area when helicopters, firing into some VC positions only 300 yards away, overshot a rocket and wounded him. He died later in the hospital.

AFTER THE FIGHTING WAS OVER, the people were allowed to return to their former homes or rather what was left of them. The government paid each owner twenty dollars compensation, that is if the owner was still alive.

THE WOUNDED. Perhaps nothing more clearly reveals the extent of American indifference towad the suffering of the Vietnamese people than the enormous disparity between the money and effort expended to kill the Vietcong and that used to treat and care for civilians wounded in theory accidentally by U.S. forces while being protected from the VC.