As we mark the anniversary of the Ukraine war, consider what war has done: In World War I, according to historian Howard Zinn, one civilian died for every 10 combatants. Zinn also said that in World War II, the ratio was one to one; in the Vietnam War, it had risen to 70 percent, and in 21st-century wars, it is 85 percent, one-third of whom are children.
Similar cruelties continue in Ukraine, where use of nuclear weapons has been threatened. According to the U.N., 8 million Ukrainians are refugees, another 5.5 million are displaced and 17.6 million need humanitarian aid. All this comes from increasing firepower, and our advancing skill at killing people at long distance from the air, while strangling their economies.
Keep in mind that with the exception of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, conventional weapons have done the damage. And now we are working on doing it from outer space.
Imagine what nuclear weapons would do.
Have we had enough of it yet?
John Raby
Scarborough
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