Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Don't Panic Don't Panic!: How many civilians is the U.S. killing in Afghanistan?
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 10:24 AM
The cover of Time magazine’s August 9, 2010 issue is a portrait of an 18-year-old Afghan woman named Aisha. A Taliban gang amputated Aisha’s nose and ears with a knife as punishment after Aisha had the temerity to run away from her husband’s house to escape her abusive in-laws. Left on a mountain to bleed to death, Aisha survived. She’s now a beautiful woman with a hole in the middle of her face where her nose should be.
Aisha is presented in the story as an icon of what more women could endure if and when the U.S. and its allies withdraw from Afghanistan. The international military presence couldn’t save Aisha from her attack, but if the Taliban expands its area of control in the absence of a military opponent, Taliban gangsters will likely be able to gets their hands on even more Aishas.
I shouldn’t say if. It’s really a when. American generals and politicians have for years been saying that the ultimate solution to the Afghan war will be political rather military. In plain English, that means American leaders have accepted that we will not eliminate the Taliban or Talibanism with military force. The initial success of Bush’s Operation Enduring Freedom was a single victorious battle in a long war. Every year since their overthrow, the Taliban have gained strength. There will never be a World War II-like surrender ceremony where Mullah Omar or some other Talibastard sits at a table with Gen. David “Don’t Call Him Betray Us” Petraeus to sign a surrender treaty denouncing all things Taliban. The best we can hope for is a political settlement that allows the Taliban control of certain parts of Afghanistan, as well as representation in the Afghan government.
The Time cover is serious and thoughtful in the sense that you’ll learn a lot of good information if you read it. In a country where news organizations have a hard time distinguishing between Apple product launches and, um, actual news, Time deserves props for placing gruesome reality on its cover — where even non-readers are going to see it.
But my initial reaction to the cover was actually anger and annoyance. “Is that news?” I thought. The Taliban is a vile, murderous gang. Okay. And the sun is hot.
I would have far preferred it if Time had the chutzpah to put on its cover an Afghan civilian injured by U.S. or NATO forces. Time is correct to ask readers to reckon with the implications of a U.S. pullout. But neither Time, nor Newsweek, nor the TV news outlets from which most Americans get their news, has ever seriously paid that kind of attention the civilians killed by Americans. It’s been covered, but never as prominently or as emotionally as Time just presented Taliban violence with Aisha.
On August 8, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission released a report on civilian casualties in Afghanistan during the first seven months of 2010.
In the first seven months of 2010, 1325 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan — up from 1252 during the same period in 2009. Of those people, a large majority (895 people) were killed by what the report calls anti-government forces (i.e. mainly the Taliban).
But 303 are listed as killed by pro-government forces, a broad category that includes Afghan military and police, as well as U.S. and NATO forces. The report doesn’t give an exact number, but it says the number of civilians killed by airstrikes is down from 2009.
A United Nations report also released this month echoes AIHRC’s findings, and notes that the U.S. led military offensives in southern Afghanistan has caused a surge in civilian casualties. Our military offensives have placed Afghan civilians between us and Taliban forces. When you’re standing between two people shooting at each other, you get hit.
Again, good for Time for talking about what the Taliban did to Aisha. But I still wish a big-budget U.S. news organization would cast as unflinching a gaze someone hurt by us.
Comments (9)
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How many civilians is the US killing in Afghanistan?
As many as it takes. Sorry I know that's crass but it's a war. The purpose of going to war is to kill people and break things. No other nation goes to the lengths we do to prevent civilian casualties. Our enemy in this war deliberately targets and hides behind civilians so how is it an outrage when we accidently cause civilian casualties? All you hand-wringers should read a little WWII history. We were right to press on then despite monumental death and devastation and we are right to press on now.
OyDave is right. To win hearts and minds, sometimes you need to remove them from the body first.
Hard to eliminate the Taliban or Talibanism with military force when they dress as civilians to hide.
http://www.whudat.com/news/images/the-new-…
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ban8okDZpTk/ScBk…
Andisheh - your love of America is over whelming! I know America does kill innocent people - it happens. I wish a big-budget U.S. news organization would cast a gaze to a country or people helped by us.
it would be ideal if there were no civilian deaths whatsoever, but that seems unreasonable to hope for in the midst of armed conflict.
if "only" 303 of the 1325 civilian deaths in afghanistan (which is still a lot of innocent dead people) were killed by afghan military/police, UN and US forces, that seems like a reasonable ratio.
that's almost 3:1 that were killed by the taliban compared to afghan/western forces.
does that mean there are going to be 3 articles forthcoming about "how many civilians is the taliban killing in afghanistan" to balance out this article?
Andisheh - what country gives more in terms of dollars, food, medical supplies, and man hours at every national disaster in the world? Is that anything to be proud of?
What Nation goes to war with people and then rebuilds their country with their own time and money? What Nation wins wars and doesn't take over what was won but rebuilds it?
"Talibastard"--brilliant!
There's only one way to conquer Central Asia and Ghenghis Khan figured it out a long time ago. "Kill anyone taller than an axe handle".
You have to murder every male over 3 ft tall and rape all the women so they bear your children or you will have to deal with constant uprisings.
The United States needs to quit pussying around or get the fuck out.
PistolPete-- what nation supports violent coups against democratically elected presidents and then openly supports the brutal dictator that comes in afterwards?
"What Nation wins wars and doesn't take over what was won but rebuilds it?"
So the USA didnt take over Half of Mexico after the Mexican-American war? Why do you think Texas and California are states? What do you think the justification of that war was? Answer: "It was god's will and america's manifest destiny to own that land..."
The USA is great when it comes to disaster relief, certainly. And that is something that we should all be very proud of. In wars, the USA is sometimes on the morally right side of conflicts and in some cases it is on the wrong side. No different than other countries. Hell, the revolutionary war probably wouldn't have been won without help (including foreign troops who actually died helping the colonists) from European countries like France and Poland.
But to claim that the USA has some kind of moral superiority over the rest of the world is ignoring many dark parts of our history. Continuing slavery long after the rest of the developed world condemned it; the shameful civil rights abuses which were formally legal until only ~50 years ago; "manifest destiny", basically the idea that the USA "deserved" all the land from coast to coast; supporting dictators during the cold war, etc.
Every act the USA does cannot be automatically deemed morally righteous just because the USA does it. Examining, analyzing, and in some cases criticizing the USA certainly is not beyond the fray...
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