How war destroys lives

“A building that’s almost completely destroyed and turned to rubble, as a witness that something bad has happened there, seems to lean over, getting ready to give up the fight it started when it didn’t want to fall apart entirely. It’s contemplating whether it should topple over or stand the test of time with what is left of it.”

“A girl sits in front of the building. She’s crying, holding a dirty doll in her hands. Next to her lies her little two year old brother, she is five. His head is bleeding, his hands as well; at least what is left of them. He is dead, no longer feeling any pain. But the girl feels her pain double because she can’t save him anymore. Her pain is not only about her dead brother or herself sitting there in the rubble. Her pain is about the loss she suffered. Not only her brother is dead but her parents as well. They must be because they are somewhere underneath the building’s rubble. And somewhere under there are her two sisters as well. All of them dead! All of them gone!”

“I sit here watching the news and see a building, almost completely destroyed. All that’s left is one wall standing and all else has been turned into a pile of brick and ash. In front of the house sits a crying girl. She’s holding a little boy who is covered with dust and blood. No one is helping her, no one is comforting her, no one is asking her if she’s all alone. There’s only a camera pointed her way to show the reality of the face of war. And that girl, who lost everyone and everything, has nothing to do with a war someone else is waging. That girl is not the target yet she has become a victim.”

Steven 21/10/2023