introduction
afghanistan, algeria, the republic of burundi, china, colombia, congo, india, indonesia, israel, iraq, liberia, nigeria, pakistan, peru, the philippines, russia, somalia, sudan, uganda. . . .these are a part of the list of 30 countries which carried out wars in the beginning of 2003. (hedges 20.) i am a chinese student who is young and untouched by the experiences of wars. a word “war” is not yet to me a familiar noun. however, when i learnt that a billion died due to war during the 20 century (hedges 19. fn.1), i could not help being overwhelmed by the figure. the number of the victims is one-sixth of the present population of the world!
refugees are another wretched outcome of war.
 
40,000,000 people who did not belong to german race were forced to leave europe during the second world war . . . . 200,000 people in afghanistan and pakistan were driven out of their countries in 2001. . . .only in one year, 2001, either because of the disputes using weapons or because of the invasion of human rights, 40,000 people lost their homes. (hedges 28. fn.123)