Afghan victims of US war - some examples

The major US media do not do a good job on covering how the ravages of the US/NATO war in Afghanistan affect Afghan civilians. Norman Solomon’s book War Made Easy provides one overview of the evidence.The media do report regularly on the deaths of US troops, the battle plans of the generals in charge, the battles against “the Taliban” or insurgents and their rising or declining influence, sometimes the details of specific US troop engagements, and how the training and use of Afghan police and troops is going. But the effects on the Afghan people are largely absent or on inside pages.

The coverage of these horrific events is better on antiwar and many liberal- or leftist- oriented internet sites or blogs. These sources are more apt to lift the veil on atrocities committed by US military forces. Here are some excerpts from some stories posted on various internet sites in February and March of this year.

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February 2, 2010 – Derrick Crowe, political director of the Brave New Foundation posted an article on Huffington Post titled “2010: Worst Year for Civilian Deaths in the Afghanistan War.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/derrick-crowe/2010-worst-year-for-civil_b_817308.html

Crowe writes that 2010 “was the worst year for civilian deaths in the war so far, and irregular armed troops backed by the US and by the Afghan government are preying on the population while recruiting and abusing children.” His evidence comes from the latest assessment from the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (.PDF):

"

Almost everything related to the war surged in 2010: the combined numbers of Afghan and foreign forces surpassed 350,000; security incidents mounted to over 100 per week; more fighters from all warring side were killed; and the number of civilian people killed, wounded and displaced hit record levels.

...From 1 January to 31 December 2010, at least 2,421 civilian Afghans were killed and over 3,270 were injured in conflict-related security incidents across Afghanistan. This means everyday 6-7 noncombatants were killed and 8-9 were wounded in the war.

...In addition to civilian casualties, hundreds of thousands of people were affected in various ways by the intensified armed violence in Afghanistan in 2010. Tens of thousands of people were forced out of their homes or deprived of healthcare and education services and livelihood opportunities due to the continuation of war in their home areas.

"Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are widely considered as the most lethal tools which killed over 690 civilians in 2010. However, as you will read in this report, there is virtually no information about the use of cluster munitions by US/NATO forces. Despite Afghanistan's accession to the international Anti-Cluster Bomb Treaty in 2008, the US military has allegedly maintained stockpiles of cluster munitions in Afghanistan.

"A second key issue highlighted in this report is the emergence of the irregular armed groups in parts of Afghanistan which are backed by the Afghan Government and its foreign allies. These groups have been deplored as criminal and predatory by many Afghans and have already been accused of severe human rights violations such as child recruitment and sexual abuse."

Inreasingly, children are victims

February 14, 2011 - M. Lederer posts “Afghanistan Child Victims on the Rise – UN Report,” on Huffington Post, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/15/afghanistan-child-victims-rising_n_823369.html The UN report in question was released in early February and documents that

“An increasing number of children have been killed and injured in the conflict in Afghanistan, mostly by the Taliban and other anti-government groups… Lederer continues: “Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the report, which covers a two-year period from September 1, 2008 to Aug. 30, 2010, that children continue to be victims of suicide and rocket attacks, improvised explosive devices, and military operations by the Taliban and other armed groups as well as Afghan and international forces.

“The report cites examples of children used to carry out suicide attacks and plant bombs, and the recruitment of youngsters by armed groups as well as by the Afghan National Security Forces, despite a government ban on including anyone under the age of 18 in the military or police. […]

"In 2010, the report found that women and children made up a greater proportion of those killed and injured than in 2009, with child casualties increasing 55 percent from the same period in 2009. “It said three-quarters of the civilian casualties were linked to the Taliban and other armed opposition groups, an increase of 53 percent from 2009.

"On the other hand, civilian casualties attributable to pro-government forces decreased by 30 percent compared to the first half of 2009…” […]

"The report further indicatd the recruitment and use of children by all parties to the conflict was observed throughout the country during the two-year reporting period. The U.N. said it was able to verify 26 of 47 reported incidents, including several cases of children used – sometimes unwittingly – to carry out suicide attacks and seven cases of children recruited from across the border in Pakistan. […]

Information was collected from across the country on some 382 children detained on charges related to national security and 97 cases were confirmed as relating to the conflict. 'All were aged between 9 and 17 and included one girl,' it said.”Afghanistan Barack Obama

Killing civilians from helicopters by mistake is a war crime February 24, 2011 - Jason Ditz reports for Antiwar.com on a “NATO Helicopter Kills Five Afghan Civilians, Including Two Children, http://news.antiwar.com/2011/02/24/nato-helicopter-kills-five-afghan-civilians-including-two-children

“Five Afghan civilians in the deseprately poor Kapisa Province were killed today by NATO troops while they were out hunting. NATO saw them, three men with bird-hunting rifles and two boys (aged 12 and 13), assumed they were insurgents, killing them. […]

"The killings are just the latest in a growing string of embarrassing NATO killings of civilians in the northeastern part of the country. Last week NATO killed scores of civilians in Kunar, and earlier this week bombed a family in their home in Nangarhar.

General Patraeus apologizes for troops killing children March 2, 2011 - Jason Ditz posts this news item on Antiwar.com; http://news/antiwar/com/2011/03/02/patraeus-apologizes-for-killing-nine-afghan-children “General Davis Petraeus today announced that the US is “deeply sorry” for yesterday’s air strike in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan, a strike which killed nine children who were collecting firewood. “’

"'These deaths should never have happened,' Petraeus insisted in the wake of angry condemnation from President Hamid Karzai and public protests on the streets of the Kunar Province, where there was already anger about a NATO offensive which killed 65 other civilians last month.” […]

Human costs of this war are not captured in numbers

March 4, 2001 – Kathy Kelly posts an article on CommonDreams.org titled “The Cost of US Terrorism in Afghanistan: Incalculable.” Kelly is the coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence. The full article is at http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/04.

She writes that “while a majority of U.S. people disapprove of the war in Afghanistan, many on grounds of its horrible economic cost, only 3% took the war into account when voting in the 2010 midterm elections.” The down economy was much more important than the war and its human effects.

Continuing: “U.S. people, if they do read or hear of it, may be shocked at the apparent unconcern of the crews of two U.S. helicopter gunships, which attacked and killed nine children on a mountainside in Afghanistan’s Kumar province, shooting them 'one after another' this past Tuesday March 1st. ('The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round they hovered over us and started shooting.' (NYT 3/2/11)). [...]

“Four of the boys were seven years old; three were eight, one was nine and the oldest was twelve. “The children were gathering wood under a tree in the mountains near a village in the district,” said Noorullah Noori, a member of the local development council in Manogai district. 'I myself was involved in the burial,' Noori said. 'Yesterday we buried them.' (AP, March 2, 2011) General Petraeus has acknowledged, and apologized for, the tragedy.

Kelly gives others examples of atrocities, including the following one: He [Patraeus] has had many tragedies to apologize for just counting Kunar province alone. Last August 26th, in the Manogai district, Afghan authorities accused international forces of killing six children during an air assault on Taliban positions. Provincial police chief Khalilullah Ziayee said a group of children were collecting scrap metal on the mountain when NATO aircraft dropped bombs to disperse Taliban fighters attacking a nearby base. ‘In the bombardment six children, aged six to 12, were killed,’ the police commander said. “’Another child was injured.’” [...]

She also points to the widespread poverty and refugees, the conditions of which affect millions of the Afghan people, including children and then concludes her article with these words: “Sometimes the issue is right in front of us – as it was to those helicopter crews - it’s up close so there can be no mistake as to what we are doing. According to the election polls we see the cost of war, dimly, but, as with the helicopter crews, it doesn’t affect - or prevent - our decisions. Afterwards we deplore the tragedy; we make a pretense of acknowledging the cost of war, but it is incalculable. We can’t hope to count it. We actually, finally, have to stop making people like the nine children who died on March 1st, pay it.”

Intentional Targeting of Civilians by US and allied forces

March 8, 2011 – CommonDreams.org published an article by Afghans for Peace, “Afghan Civilians Intentionally Targeted by NATO/ISAF forces” http://commondreams.org/view/2011/03/08-6

The article opens as follows: “Careful examination of numerous reports, and images/video footage, along with eye-witness and victim testimonies, clarify that Afghan civilians are the main targets of deadly attacks by North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). Although the Coalition forces claim that previous civilian massacres were accidental, Afghan-led peace movements believe that the killings are at best negligent to at worst intentional in nature."

Here are examples from the article.

“In Nangarhar province on February 20th, an entire family of six was killed by a NATO air strike into their home in the Khoygani district. A photo captured by Reuters shows that the missile directly hit the roof of the family’s home. The parents and their four children were all inside when the reportedly stray missile landed in their residential community. The father was a soldier for the Afghan National Army who died of excessive bleeding after troops delayed his arrival to a hospital.

“After a four day operation by ISAF and NATO in Kunar province over 65 civilians. More than half of the casualties were women and children, and this was confirmed by the governor of the province. Contrary to the abundant evidence, NATO claimed no civilians were killed and later insisted that insurgents were among the deceased, although villagers rejected this assertion. […] “Without regard for civilians, the Tarok Kolache village in Afghanistan’s Arghandab River Valley was completely destroyed with 25 tons of bombs. Is the destruction of entire villages, which are the support system for the majority of Afghans, a logical tactic in counter-insurgency? Clearly, the Afghans who have suffered due to this disagree. A farmer of the Arghandab district asked

'Why do you have to blow up so many of our fields and homes?', while one angry villager accused the military of ruining his life after the demolition. [...]

“...In September 2010, it was revealed that a dozen US soldiers faced charges in their involvement of not only killing innocent Afghan civilians at random for sport, but also collecting the victims finger bones, leg bones, teeth, and skulls as trophies. The military refuses to release photos that show US soldiers posing with naked, mutilated and charred corpses of their victims. Sound familiar? The father of one of the victims killed was quoted as saying, 'The Americans really love to kill innocent people.'

"In fact, they had planned on killing more civilians had it not been for one soldier, Spc. Adam Winfield, and his father who tried relentlessly to blow the whistle. He had said his squad leader 'gives high-fives to the guy who kills innocent people and plans more with him.- I have proof that they are planning another one in the form of an AK-47 (machine gun) they want to drop on another guy.' Instead of honoring Winfield for exposing the truth, he was instead charged with the same crimes. His father had reported Winfeld’s statements to Army officials, but they turned a blind eye.

One can’t help but to wonder whether the killing of civilians for sport is more abhorrent or the apparent negligence and silence by the higher ups in the Armed forces. "

The occupation has done nothing good ovrall to change the conditions of the Afghan people.

Afghans for Peace. “The almost decade long war and occupation has done more harm than good, escalating violence in Afghanistan to its peak, and continues to deteriorate chances of peace for the future. Afghanistan has already been subjected to previous decades of war and now each new generation is haunted with both the memory and reality of endless bloodshed, death, and misery. The fact remains that Afghans continue to live with hunger and worsening poverty, torture and humiliation, planted with weapons, escalating air strikes and night raids. [...]

The Afghan people must be given a chance to makes decisions about their own future. “It is the right of the people to decide the fate of their country and there are no exceptions. With the recent revolts in Arab countries, it’s only a matter of time before Afghans follow their lead. This requires immediate change and an honest vision for a truly democratic Afghanistan. In doing so, we must be aware of the ground realities, namely the presence of NATO, Taliban, warlords as well as regional intervention.”

Signed by:Afghans for PeaceAfghan Youth Peace VolunteersAfghan Canadian Student Association

The point:

"Too many of us in the US are ignorant of the harm our military forces do to the Afghan people and others, or don’t care, or are preoccupied or overwhelmed by the challenges of their own lives, or who see the Afghan people as inferior or demons and not worth thinking about in this global “war on terrorism.”

But, whether we know the war/occupation or not, whether we support it passively or actively, it continues and millions of Afghan people suffer the agonizing consequences. Words are hardly sufficient for conveying the horrors of this and other wars. To hear and feel the tragedy of war, google A Children’s Prayer – Baylor Men’s Choir