According to the historians Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig there have been eight world wars. 8 large scale wars have been fought between the countries of the world over different historical periods, but when children learn about them, they never talk about how the wars affected the people. War destroys communities and families and often disrupts the development of the social and economic fabric of nations. The effects of war include long-term physical and psychological harm to adults. The ones who are the worst affected by wars, are the most innocent victims. The children.
War affects children in all the ways it affects adults, but also in different ways.
Impacts in childhood adversely affect the life trajectory of children far more than adults. Consider children who lose the opportunity for education during war, children who are forced to move into refugee or displaced person camps, where they wait for years in miserable circumstances for normal life to resume, if it ever does. Consider a child disabled in war; they may, in addition to loss of a limb, sight, or cognitive capacity, lose the opportunity of reuniting with their family, a social life or even a safe environment. Even long after the war has ended, these lives struggle to attain the potential they had before the impact of war.
Their attachments are frequently disrupted in times of war, due to the loss of parents, extreme preoccupation of parents in protecting and finding subsistence for the family, and emotional unavailability of depressed or distracted parents. The child may be in substitute care with someone who cares for him or her only slightly – relatives or an orphanage.
The worst part is, the children have no part in the wars, they are not accountable for anything that occurs, they are the blameless, clueless, innocent victims that suffer because of the actions of the people in control. Children are dependent on the care, empathy, and attention of adults who love them. A child is born, and it is commonly assumed that they will be taken care of by their parents till they are able to take care of themselves. A certain proportion of war-affected children lose all adult protection – “unaccompanied children,” as they are known in refugee situations. They are denied the basic human need of everyone that has ever lived on this planet. Parentless, they become children of war.
War does not determine who is right, just who is left.
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