Letters to the Editor: In global conflict, it’s always the poorest who suffer the most
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- The Iran war is projected to push up to 23.4 million more children into poverty this year, deepening a global crisis in education, hunger and opportunity.
- As fuel prices soar, poorer families lose income and stability, pulling children from school to work instead, sacrificing daily meals and exposing them to exploitation and stunted development.
- Whereas wealthier nations and leaders remain largely shielded from the fallout, the poorest communities worldwide shoulder the harshest, most enduring effects of conflict-driven economic shock.
To the editor: This article reports that the Iran war “could push up to 23.4 million more children into poverty by the end of the year” (“The ripple effects of the Iran war threaten education for millions of children worldwide,” Aug. 25). It makes clear that the ever-widening ripples of damage and tragedy of President Trump’s war on Iran continue to grow more globally vast and heartbreaking.
It’s always the poorest who bear the most damage when things go south, when soaring fuel prices strain economies and individual families. Children in poorer countries who might have found the sanctuary of learning and one assured meal a day are taken from school to support families that cannot buy food, whose fathers can no longer buy fuel to run boats, to fish for a living.
Children pulled from school, forced to work, are always more vulnerable to exploitation — to having their development stunted, their health diminished.
Certainly, Trump was cautioned for all of the obvious reasons why it was a mistake of great proportions to attack Iran. The repercussions of decisions based on his own arrogance, disassociated from facts, will never touch him, his family or most any of us who are doing moderately well. Always the poor who suffer most.
Jana K. Shaker, Pebble Beach
