WASHINGTON: The world seems to be full of contradictions nowadays and the contradictions get more stark in the case of United States of America where preaching and its practice is worlds apart. In reality, the US, the ‘votary of human rights’ and ‘guardian of democracy’ around the world keep on harping peaceful co existence among the nations, has done more damage to the peace and tranquillity of the world than any other nation at least to the Muslim world.
The outgoing President Barrack Obama is leaving his office on 20th of January this month but the legacy he is leaving behind is destruction and miseries to the Muslim world.
In fact, Mr Obama is not the only President who has destruction and miseries to his credit; several other Presidents like Bush duos have also done that.
It is really an irony that Obama who has been conferred Nobel Peace prize in the year 2009 for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people” has dropped 26,171 bombs on seven Muslim countries namely Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Somaliya and Pakistan in 2016 alone.
The U S dropped 3,027 more bombs than in 2015 as per the report released by Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The CFR is an independent, nonpartisan membership organisation, think tank and publisher.
Out of 26,171 bombs dropped, most (24,287) were dropped in Iraq Syria. This number is based on the percentage of total coalition airstrikes carried out in 2016 by the United States in Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the counter –Islamic State Campaign formed to defeat Da’esh in Iraq and Syria.
Of the total 30,743 bombs that the coalition forces drpped, then, the U S dropped 24,287(79 percent of 30,745).If we go by the airstrikes, the U S conducted approximately 67 percent airstrikes in Iraq in 2016 and 96 percent of those in Syria, the report mentions.
The scale of devastation the bombs has caused in one country that is Syria can gauged from the fact that since the war started in the country five years back, it is estimated that more than a quarter million people have lost their life and millions have fled their own country and living in exile.
More than 50% of hospitals and health centres are either partially functioning or completely out of service. Thousands of children have been killed since 2011.With one in four schools having been damaged or destroyed, Syria’s education systems has been shattered by the war.
Courtesy: Muslim Mirror