Collateral Damage- My Memorial Day Message

Slain Pakistani Driver's Family Initiates Legal Action Against US Officials
Ayaz Gul | NPR

"The deceased driver, Mohammad Azam, was transporting Taliban chief Mullah Mansoor when missiles fired by a drone struck their car in Pakistan's southwestern Baluchistan province, killing both of them....

“My brother, a father of four children, was innocent and the sole bread earner for his extremely impoverished family,” a brother of the deceased driver said in his complaint registered with Noshki police station. He said Azam had no links to any terror groups and used to ferry passengers in his taxi."

My Memorial Day MessageLet us embrace the idea no war is a good war. Today's wars kill more civilian women, children and men then enemy combatants. Wars in middle eastern countries cause civilians sufferings coming from several groups. The Russian & U.S. led coalition bombings. ISIS. Rebels. Various factions of so-called religious fighters and at the hands of government forces.



Depending where people live every country sets a day aside (sometimes several) to mourn the loss of soldiers and celebrate their bravery. Yet not one country sets aside one special day exclusively dedicated to the far greater numbers of peaceful people who've innocently lost their lives caught between the lines of battle. Those who's families, homes and lives were destroyed just because they happen to live in the wrong place at the wrong time in history.

Stanford University: Civilians 'suffer first, last and in the middle' during wartime scholar says-- "He noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, there was one civilian casualty for every eight or nine soldier casualties. With World War II, the ratio became 1-to-1. Over the last 30 years, the ratio has flipped: Now, every combatant casualty is matched by nine civilian deaths."

It's to these I hold most in remembrance this day.