Severe Humanitarian Disasters Caused by US Aggressive Wars Against Foreign Countries
美国对外侵略战争造成严重人道主义灾难
The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS)
中国人权研究会
April, 2021
2021年4月

(3) The Gulf War. In 1991, the US-led coalition forces attacked Iraq, directly leading to about 2,500 to 3,500 civilian deaths and destroying approximately 9,000 civilian houses. The war-inflicted famine and damage to the local infrastructure and medical facilities caused about 111,000 civilian deaths, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimated that the war and the post-war sanctions on Iraq caused the death of about 500,000 of the country’s children. The coalition forces targeted Iraq’s infrastructure and wantonly destroyed most of its power stations (accounting for 92 percent of the country’s total installed generating capacity), refineries (accounting for 80 percent of the country’s production capacity), petrochemical complexes, telecommunication centers (including 135 telephone networks), bridges (numbering more than 100), highways, railways, radio and television stations, cement plants, and factories producing aluminum, textiles, wires, and medical supplies. This war led to serious environmental pollution: about 60 million barrels of petroleum were dumped into the desert, polluting about 40 million metric tons of soil; about 24 million barrels of petroleum spilled out of oil wells, forming 246 oil lakes; and the smoke and dust generated by purposely ignited oil wells polluted 953 square kilometers of land. In addition, the US troops’ depleted uranium (DU) weapons, which contain highly toxic and radioactive material, were also first used on the battlefield during this Gulf War against Iraq.

3．海湾战争。1991年，以美国为首的盟军出兵伊拉克，在对伊空袭中有2500至3500名平民死亡，9000座房屋被毁。战争结束后因为基础设施的破坏和缺医少粮，有约11.1万名平民死亡。而根据联合国儿童基金会的估计，战争和随后的制裁导致约50万名儿童死亡。战争中盟军故意破坏伊拉克的基础设施，导致其大多数发电站（92%的装机容量）、炼油厂（80%的生产能力）、石化综合体、电信中心（包括135个电话网）、桥梁（100多座）、高速公路、铁路、广播电视站、水泥厂以及生产铝材、纺织品、电线和医疗用品的工厂被毁。海湾战争还导致了严重的环境污染，约有6000万桶石油被倾倒入沙漠，污染了约4000万吨土壤；有2400万桶石油从油井溢出，形成了246个“湖泊”；人为点燃油井生成的烟雾和烟尘污染了953平方公里的土地。在海湾战争中，美军还首次使用了贫铀弹。

(4) The Kosovo War. In March 1999, NATO troops led by the United States blatantly set the UN Security Council aside and carried out a 78-day continuous bombing of Yugoslavia under the banner of “preventing humanitarian disasters”, killing 2,000-plus innocent civilians, injuring more than 6,000, and uprooting nearly one million. During the war, more than two million Yugoslavians lost their sources of income, and about 1.5 million children could not go to school. NATO troops deliberately targeted the infrastructure of Yugoslavia in order to weaken the country’s determination to resist. Economists of Serbia estimated that the total economic loss caused by the bombing was as much as 29.6 billion US dollars. Lots of bridges, roads, railways, and other buildings were destroyed during the bombing, affecting 25,000 households, 176 cultural relics, 69 schools, 19 hospitals, and 20 health centers. Apart from that, during this war, NATO troops used at least 31,000 DU bombs and shells, leading to a surge in cancer and leukemia cases in Yugoslavia and inflicting a long-term disastrous impact on the ecological environment of Yugoslavia and Europe.

4．科索沃战争。1999年3月，以美国为首的北约军队打着“避免人道主义灾难”的旗号，公然绕过联合国安理会，对南联盟进行了78天的持续轰炸，造成2000多名无辜平民丧生，6000多人受伤，近100万人流离失所，200多万人失去生活来源。北约军队还有意识地针对南联盟的基础设施进行定点打击以消除其抵抗决心。据塞尔维亚经济学家估计，轰炸造成的经济损失总额约为296亿美元。轰炸造成大量桥梁、公路、铁路以及25000户家庭、176处文化古迹、69所学校、19家医院和20个保健中心受损，150万儿童无法上学。此外，北约军队至少使用了3.1万枚贫铀弹，导致该地区癌症和白血病发病率激增，并对当地和整个欧洲的生态环境产生长期的灾难性影响。

(5) The Afghanistan War. In October 2001, the United States sent troops to Afghanistan. While combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban, it also caused a large number of unnecessary civilian casualties. Due to the lack of authoritative statistical data, there is no established opinion about the number of civilian casualties during the Afghanistan War, but it is generally agreed that since entering Afghanistan, the US troops caused the deaths of more than 30,000 civilians, injured more than 60,000 civilians, and created about 11 million refugees. After the US military announced its withdrawal in 2014, Afghanistan continued to be in turmoil. The website of The New York Times reported on July 30, 2019, that in the first half of 2019, there were 363 confirmed deaths due to the US bombs in Afghanistan, including 89 children. Scholars at Kabul University estimated that since its beginning, the Afghanistan War has caused about 250 casualties and the loss of 60 million US dollars per day.

5．阿富汗战争。2001年10月，美国出兵阿富汗，在打击基地组织和塔利班的同时，也造成了大量平民伤亡。由于缺乏权威的统计数据，各方对于阿富汗战争中平民的伤亡数据没有定论。一般认为，自美军2001年10月7日进入阿富汗以来，当地已有3万多名平民被美军打死、炸死或因美军带来的战乱死亡，受伤人数超过6万，约1100万人沦为难民。2014年美军宣布撤离后，阿富汗依然处于动荡中。《纽约时报》网站2019年7月30日报道，2019年上半年确定死于美军炸弹的有363人，包括89名儿童。根据喀布尔大学学者的评估，阿富汗战争平均每天造成约6000万美元经济损失、约250人伤亡。