Another Cost Of War: Syria Edition

Having written before about how the effects of modern wars last long after the last shot is fired, I found this photo interesting, with the explanatory caption from PBS:

Town of Anadan

Hundreds of probable artillery craters, represented with yellow dots, were identified in the town of Anadan near the major city of Aleppo in Syria.

Satellite Images from Aleppo, Syria, from July-August 2012

[Click on the photo to enlarge.]

Amnesty International hired a commercial photographic satellite firm to document atrocities being committed in Syria's civil war. See the quote credit for more explanation.

When I see an image like this, one of the first things that pops into my head is to look at the areas that are clearly settled and/or cultivated, versus those that are not. Those yellow dots are supposed to be artillery craters. Where there are exploded artillery shells, there will probably be unexploded artillery shells, also. The yellow dots are mostly in cultivated land. What that tells me is that there are going to be some very nervous farmers working those fields in the next few years.

The effects of war often last far longer than the wars themselves. The explosives and other dangerous devices that are typically left behind by the warring forces will be a reminder of the conflict for decades.

(h/t Taylor Marsh for some of the links.)

UPDATE: The second last paragraph used to end "in the last few years", which makes a whole lot more sense, but does conceivably change the meaning of the sentence. Hence, this note.