A CENTURY OF VIOLENCE

Small Arms and Light Weapons.

These include handguns, rifles, grenades, machine guns, mortars, and other portable devices.  Small arms and light weapons are inexpensive, easy to maintain, and even easier to use.

Have the presence of these weapons-and the threat they bring to civilians-been a deterrent to war?  (Note: But you have to remember, it takes a person to squeeze the trigger. Guns don't kill people, people kill people!) Hardly! in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,  Michael Klare writes that light weapons have become "the principal tool of combat in the overwhelming majority of conflicts  in the post-Cold War era."  In fact, up to 90 percent of casualties  in recent wars have been the result of small arms and light weapons. More than four million people were killed by these devices.  (No, the people did)  during the 1990's alone. In many cases, light weapons are wielded by youths who have no military training and no qualms about violating traditional rules of war.  

Land Minds

By the close of the 20th century, about  70 people on the average were being maimed or killed by land mines each day!  Most of them were civilians, not soldiers. Often, land mines are used, not to kill, but to maim and spread fear and terror among those who experience the cruel damage that they inflict.

Granted, much effort has been made in recent years to clear mines.  But some way that for every mine cleared,, 20 more are planted and that there may be 60 million land mines buried across the globe. The fact that land mines cannot tell the difference between the footfall of a soldier and that of a child playing in a field has not deterred the manufacturer and use of these hidden devices.  

Note: That is because with these people, greed overruns the humanity and caring and kindness.  That is what they call Satan ruling the world, for now.

Next time: A CENTURY OF VIOLENCE/Nuclear Weapons

From the Awake! magazine