Let’s count them up. How long would the list be?

I started thinking about it, and decided to compile the list so that I could see it altogether. It is a rather long list (and entirely incomplete), with millions upon millions dead from violence. Many of these death tolls are rough guesstimates, since incomplete censuses and investigations are commonplace in many of these atrocities.

In 1945, a huge bomb with extensive destructive power was dropped over Japan, spreading nuclear waste throughout the atmosphere and killing 200,000 people instantly. Tens of thousands more died later from radiation poisoning and the after effects. And the world woke up and vowed to ensure it would never happened again. We have remembrance day ever year to allow us to appreciate this message- the sacrifice that is made with war. Never again, humanity vowed. But yet it has happened again and again and again. Perhaps not from a nuclear bomb, but the lesson has clearly not been learned.

Directly after the war, the Chinese civil war claimed some 2.5 million lives (and millions more if one counts the deaths caused by famine and war-related causes). The “Great Leap Forward” to communism in China from 1949-1975 claimed over 40 million lives: 2-5 million dead from rural purges; 1 million from urban purges, 20 million from labour camps…. From 1950 onwards, more than 600,000 people died in Tibet as the result of Chinese occupation. Mao at one point even held the Guinness world record as the Top Dog in mass killings. What an honor.

The Greek civil war from 1943-49 claimed over 150 thousand lives. More than 200 thousand were killed in the Tito regime in Yugoslavia from 1944-80.

In the Korean War from 1950-53 over 4,500,000 Koreans dead, 3/4 of them civilians and 54,000 US soldiers died.The North Korean communist regime killed at least one and a half million people between 1948 and 1987.

More than 200 thousand people died in Colombia from 1946-58 from violence. More than half a million people died in India in 1947 from rioting and dislocation due to the partition of the country. More than 150 thousand died in Romania from 1948-89 and more than 130 thousand died in the civil wars in Burma/Myanmar from 1948 onwards.

More than half a million were killed in Algeria from 1954-62. Another half a million in the Sudan from 1955-1972. Another 200 thousand killed in Guatemala from 1960-1996.

3,000 people gunned down in the street, rising up after a US backed military coup in the Dominican Republic in 1965. Another half a million in the Indonesian massacre from 1965-66. At least 300 thousand dead under Idi Amin’s regime in Uganda from 1972-79.

Reports suggests that more firepower than had been used by all sides in all previous wars in human history was used on Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) from 1964-73 (7 million tons of bombs). 400,000 tons of napalm were used. Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides destroyed millions of acres of farmland and forests. More than 2,000,000 people died (mostly civilians) and as many as 3.5 million people. 60,000 American soldiers died and more than 300,000 were wounded. Another half million died after the war under the Communist regime.

One and half million people were killed in civil wars in Ethiopia from 1962-1992 and more than a million in Nigeria from 1966-1970 because of a coup and the ensuing war that followed.

One and a quarter million people died in Bangladesh in 1971, and perhaps as many as 3 million.

Over one and a half million people died under the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia between 1975-78. Over a million died in Mozambique from 1975-1992. Another half million died in Angola from 1975 onwards. At least 200 thousand were killed in the Indonesian invasion of East Timor from 1975-99. At least 150 thousand people were killed in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the Lebanese wars from 1975-90.

Another quarter million dead in the Cambodian civil war from 1978-91. Three hundred thousand more dead under Saddam Hussein in Iraq from 1979-2003 and another 300 thousand killed in Kurdistan in the 1980s and 90s. Another 300 thousand killed in Uganda under Milton Obote from 1979-86.

Almost 2 million people died in Afghanistan from 1979-2001 and more than a million died in the Iran-Iraq war from 1980-88. Almost 2 million died in the Sudan from 1983 to the new millennium. Another 150 thousand dead in Liberia from 1989-97. More than 4 million have died in the DR Congo from 1998 to the present– and probably many many more than this as almost 45 thousand are currently dying each month. More than 350 thousand died in Iraq because of an international embargo from 1990 onwards. At least 175 thousand died in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992-5. Another half million died in the Somalian civil war starting in 1991.

There have been repeated genocides since the holocaust, which have been mostly ignored until millions have died, including at least two that are currently ongoing and being ignored. This list does not even begin to address the smaller massacres (with less than 100,000 casualties), and it has missed many other of the larger atrocities.

This is disgusting. Compiling this list made me angry. It made me angry because there is no reason for these wars and deaths. There is no reason this type of violence must continue. Think about it, if that many died–how many people have been displaced, abused, or forced to witness massive violence. Why do we continue to ignore this type of violence? Why have we not found a better way to settle our differences? Why do we continue with war and when will it ever stop? It seems that nothing has been learned, and we haven’t focused enough attention towards peace. We continue with excuses; allowing lax regulations and underhanded deals. We continue to make and supply weapons. We continue to support massive human rights abusing leaders. We continue to make excuses for war and allow many to profit from it. We continue to be unaware of how we affect mass violence in other parts of the world by our own actions. We are all connected and we are not paying close enough attention to these connections.

Learn conflict mediation and transformation. Stop selling weapons. Stop making weapons. Stop allowing violent parties to profit. Focus on peace. Study peace. Spend money on peace. Give money to peacekeepers-makers-builders. We need to stop warring and start coming together.