During a previous strike against an Islamic State cash storage facility, U.S. commanders had been "willing to consider up to 50 civilian casualties due to the importance of the target".
"It's tragic, and it's not something that we want to do. One of the
burdens of command is to weigh the military value of a target, versus
the potential for civilian loss of life," the spokesman for the U.S.-led
anti-ISIS coalition, Col. Steve Warren, told reporters Wednesday. ( Jan. 20, 2016)
In recent weeks, the U.S. has said it will assess all targets on a
case-by-case basis and may be more willing to tolerate civilian
casualties for more significant targets.
REALLY?
MAYBE LIKE THE LITTLE BOY PICTURED BELOW?
REALLY?
MAYBE LIKE THE LITTLE BOY PICTURED BELOW?
" In almost a-year-and-a-half of non-stop bombing in Iraq and Syria, the United States admits to killing just 22 innocent people.
3,220 strikes IN SYRIA ALONE and they killed "ONLY" 22 innocent people?
WHAT ARE THE ODDS THAT IS TRUE?
An independent monitoring group says the real figure could be more than a thousand."
LOCAL PEOPLE SAY IT IS MANY THOUSANDS.
LET'S ESTABLISH THAT THE DEATHS OF INNOCENTS, CIVILIANS, IS A CONSEQUENCE OF ALL WAR.
"THINGS HAPPEN."
BUT WHERE CHILDREN ARE KNOWINGLY WITHIN A TARGET, IS KILLING CHILDREN 'OKAY', JUST A CONSEQUENCE OF WAR, EVEN THOUGH THOSE AIMING BOMBS KNOW THERE ARE CHILDREN BELOW?
IS IT 'OKAY' THAT THE MOST AMERICA OR COALITION FORCES CAN EXPECT TO FACE FOR KILLING A CHILD, A MOTHER, AN ELDERLY OR DISABLED PERSON IS TO PAY THE FAMILY ABOUT $10,000 USD, TOPS?
IS THAT THE VALUE ANY OF US WOULD PLACE ON ONE OF OUR CHILDREN, OUR SPOUSES, OUR PARENTS?
IF OUR FAMILY MEMBER LAY DEAD AT OUR FEET, BLOWN TO BITS BEFORE OUR EYES, WOULD WE DEMAND TO KNOW WHY?
WOULD WE AT LEAST DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION?
WOULD WE BE SATISFIED WITH AN ANSWER LIKE, "WELL, THAT'S A PRICE OF WAR...AND HERE'S $10,000. RUN ALONG NOW."?
HERE'S THE MAIN POINT...LOOK, REALLY LOOK, AT THAT PHOTO OF THE LITTLE BOY IN THE WINDOW OF HIS RUINED HOUSE... WE DON'T KNOW WHETHER OR NOT HE HAD SIBLINGS OR PARENTS KILLED BY THAT ATTACK OR IF HE'LL DIE IN THE NEXT "COALITION" STRIKE.
SHOULD THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT CONTINUE ATTACKS OR CONTINUE TO FUND AND SUPPLY ATTACKS ON HIS HOME, ON HIM?
IMAGINE THAT'S YOUR CHILD, GRANDCHILD, NEPHEW, LITTLE BROTHER, WHATEVER.
NOW ANSWER THAT QUESTION.
SHOULD WE JUST KEEP ON AND ON DOING THIS TO CHILDREN, TO CIVILIANS TRYING TO SURVIVE WAR IN PLACES WHERE WE HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING, KILLING PEOPLE WE SAY WE ARE THERE TO "HELP"?
DID THESE VICTIMS OF WAR EVER REALLY CALL OUT TO US TO "HELP" OR DID WE JUST DECIDE TO INTERFERE?
GOVERNMENTS BE DAMNED, LET'S ASK THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT!
I SERIOUSLY DOUBT ANY HUMAN ON EARTH WOULD WANT THE KIND OF "HELP" THAT LEAVES THEM OR THOSE THEY LOVE DEAD, OR ON THE RUN FROM A BOMBED-OUT VILLAGE, STARVING ON THE ROAD TO AN IMAGINED SAFETY THEY MAY NEVER REACH WHEN IT DID NOT HAVE TO BE THAT WAY!YES, IT'S MY GOVERNMENT DOING THIS, AND YES, I DO LOVE AMERICA FIERCELY, (AMERICA, BUT NOT ITS LEADERS) BUT I CANNOT, WILL NEVER ACCEPT THIS.
I AM FOR THE CHILDREN, ALL CHILDREN, ANY CHILD!
THE SMALLEST CHILD IS WORTH FAR MORE THAT A FEW THOUSAND DOLLARS IN "COMPENSATION" TO ME!
IF MY GOVERNMENT IS THE CAUSE OF THEIR UNNECESSARY DEATHS, THEIR NEEDLESS EXTRA SUFFERING IN THIS PROXY WAR AMERICA IS INVOLVED IN, SOMEONE MUST TRULY PAY, AND NOT IN DOLLARS, NOT IN "BLOOD MONEY"!
GO AND ASK THE PEOPLE.
THE VILLAGE OF AL GHARRA
Abdul-Aziz al Hassan is from the tiny mud-brick village of al Gharra, his first name the same as the mountain nearby.
He left the village while the Islamic State (IS) was in charge, but it is because of a bomb from an American plane that he cannot go back.
What happened to his family is the story of just one bomb of the 35,000 dropped so far during 10,000 missions flown in the US-led air war against the Islamic State.
Even after IS took the village, the presence of Islamic State fighters there was rare.
They largely stayed within the base on the mountain.
“We managed to live normal lives most of the time. We had family and friends and loved ones around us. We entered each others’ houses for gatherings or parties. We shared the same happiness and sadness.”
The US-led coalition occasionally launched airstrikes in the distance.
The ground shook “like an earthquake;” sometimes a house fell down.
But it wasn’t the bombs or even the dictates of the Islamic State that made al Hassan first leave home. It was the grinding poverty, worsened by war.
‘There was no bread and no work,” he said.
He took his wife and daughter and drove to Turkey.
“My father stayed there to keep the house. The moment you leave, IS takes it. All our belongings are there."
While al Hassan was in Turkey, as spring turned into summer last year, the war took another turn. Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, controlled territory that stopped just short of the mountain.
Backed by American air power, they began an offensive to recapture it from the Islamic State. Al Gharra stood in the way.
The road to the nearest town — Hasaka, held by the Kurds — was about a mile away from the village.
The first bomb fell on that road between 10 and 11 in the morning on May 6 .
Then a plane started circling over the village.
People were afraid to stay in their homes. They ran into the open.
Al Hassan’s father, Ismail, tried to run as well.
But he was too late.
The villagers remember seeing the plane point its nose down and dive, dropping a bomb. It then climbed away. Al Hassan’s father lay on the ground in a crumpled heap, dead, in front of the ruins of his house.
An uncle phoned to tell al Hassan what had happened.
He rushed back to the village from Turkey.
His father had died on the first day of the Kurdish offensive to take the mountain.
It was still going on when al Hassan returned.
“Most of the people had fled because a drone was still roaming around. The airstrikes didn’t stop … one every 15 to 30 minutes,” he said.
There were more bombs as the Kurdish forces advanced.
“Any village would be heavily bombed until the Kurds managed to get inside. Then they’d let it be. The airstrikes were unbelievable. It was complete destruction. They kept bombing until they got to the mountain.”
The YPG (a Kurdish group) general commanding the assault on what the Kurds call Mount Kezwan was inclined to see villagers and Islamic State fighters as one and the same.
He was quoted as saying that “many of the local villages are Arab and they often support IS [the Islamic State].”
General Gerer said the two main problems in capturing the mountain were the terrain and the fact that “many of the local villages are Arab and they often supported Daesh”, using the invariable name in Iraq and Syria for Isis.
And, in the offensive against the jihadist group, the Kurds are often fighting for land they would claim as part of their own future state. They see the Arabs in some of the towns and villages they have captured as aliens with no right to be there.
Young Kurdish fighters resting in a captured Isis command post, painted in green, cream and brown camouflage colours, were open about how much they benefit from US air strikes.
Al Hassan left his village for the second time — again with his family — a day before the Kurdish forces took full control of the area.
They fled over the mountain and drove through Raqqa, the place the Islamic State calls its capital, before crossing the Turkish border.
“When the Kurds arrived, they kicked everybody out under the pretext that IS had littered the village with booby traps,” he said. “So the entire village left. Almost half of the village was destroyed — then it was completely empty.”
Before they left, they buried his father in a simple grave in the village’s small cemetery.
He was just 55 years old and his entire family lived with him.
“Even if we went back, where would we live? In our destroyed house?” Al Hassan asked bitterly. “Does the American government think we have money? Do they think I can just go back and rebuild our house?” He and the rest of the family are now stuck in Turkey … refugees.
The US military would not confirm whether or not bombs were dropped on al Gharra (also known as al Gharba).
A spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the name of the US-led military campaign against the Islamic State, offered a vague response to our questions.
He simply said the coalition had “conducted a number of airstrikes near al Hasaka” on May 6 and 7.
When pressed about whether the mountain or the village was hit on those days, the spokesman replied: “We can confirm that Abdul-Aziz mountain is geographically close enough to be considered ‘near al Hasaka'."
GlobalPost found other instances of US airstrikes — detailed below — that probably killed civilians but which were not officially investigated, or which were investigated and dismissed. In almost a-year-and-a-half of bombing Iraq and Syria, the United States admits to killing just 22 innocent people. An independent monitoring group says the real figure could be more than a thousand.
The explanation for the US military’s impossibly low number can be found in the very way it investigates its own airstrikes.
[RELATED: This is how the US-led coalition investigates itself when accused of killing civilians ]
A CENTCOM spokesman told us that all civilian casualties were investigated — even if something as insubstantial as an anonymous post to Twitter was the only source.
But some US investigations were cursory at best, amounting to what appears to be willful blindness.
In an airstrike on one Syrian village — also detailed below — it seems that simple confusion over place names meant that civilian casualties were never investigated and were left uncounted.
A coalition spokesman eventually said that CENTCOM would review that case too, after GlobalPost pointed out the village on a map.
Given the immense firepower deployed in Iraq and Syria, killing civilians is frighteningly easy, especially from the air.
American pilots and their commanding officers are heavily dependent on information from Kurdish troops.
In several cases we have looked at, witnesses say civilians were at the scene but the pilots — or the Kurds calling in the strike — thought they were Islamic State fighters.
In the few cases where the United States admits killing civilians, the explanation is often the same: the civilians ran into the target area just after the pilots pulled the trigger.
THE VILLAGE OF AL KHAN
Attempts to discover whether the coalition was responsible for a second airstrike investigated by GlobalPost played
out in a similar way.
As with al Gharra, this incident occurred in a small village near al Hasaka, the village of al Khan.
According to the witness interviewed by
GlobalPost, coalition airstrikes struck the village in the early hours
of Dec. 7, killing dozens of civilians.
The coalition said it had previously carried out a
credibility assessment on the strike in al Khan after reports of
civilian casualties emerged, among them a report by McClatchy.
The coalition’s report for that day said that a number of airstrikes were carried out “near al Hawl.”
On this occasion, the coalition disclosed the location of the airstrikes it carried out on Dec. 7 — showing them to be south of al Hawl.
According to a local activist group that reported from the scene of the strike, the village of al Khan sits about 10 miles southwest of al Hawl — in the same area the coalition said strikes had occurred.
GlobalPost provided segments of testimony from a witness to the strike, and asked whether the village of al Khan had been targeted.
The coalition responded: “We conducted a credibility assessment on the allegation of civilian casualties near al Khan Dec. 7, 2015.
Since the coalition did not conduct airstrikes near al Khan [BY NAME] on Dec. 7, 2015, there was no investigation conducted.”
The coalition’s response to the two
incidents illustrates how without very specific information about the
location of alleged civilian casualties, most claims don’t make it past
the credibility check.
On both occasions the coalition initially denied
hitting the villages, but appeared to be basing those conclusions on a
cursory search in their records for the SPECIFIC NAMES of the small hamlets.
Even Mount Abdul-Aziz — 50 miles from end to end, and which allies on the ground said was captured with the backing of US airstrikes — did not appear when the coalition searched its records.
Even Mount Abdul-Aziz — 50 miles from end to end, and which allies on the ground said was captured with the backing of US airstrikes — did not appear when the coalition searched its records.
Most of the people have fled to Lebanon or
Turkey.
Perhaps a hundred stayed behind.
They say the village was hit by rockets and strafed in the early hours of Dec. 7, killing some 47 civilians, half of them children.
We spoke to one of the residents by phone, an Arab man in his 30s who, fearing reprisals from the Kurds, wants to be known only by his nickname, Abu Khalil.
They say the village was hit by rockets and strafed in the early hours of Dec. 7, killing some 47 civilians, half of them children.
We spoke to one of the residents by phone, an Arab man in his 30s who, fearing reprisals from the Kurds, wants to be known only by his nickname, Abu Khalil.
He is a former civil servant in the Syrian education ministry and once served in the regime army (he deserted).
“People in al Khan didn’t like IS and always avoided talking to them,” he said.
The villagers even tried to expel them.
Several residents say the village was hit by rockets and strafed in the early hours of Dec. 7, killing some 47 civilians, half of them children.
The war against the Islamic State here is, again, being waged by American aircraft above and Kurdish militia forces on the ground.
Abu Khalil accepts that there was an Islamic State presence in al Khan. But he said: “There were fewer than 10 fighters in the village, including two locals. And they all stayed together at one place.”
THE VILLAGERS ROSE UP AGAINST 'IS'
According to one report, there was an altercation that escalated into an exchange of fire. The Islamic State apparently responded by sending reinforcements to al Khan.
This convoy, it seems, was spotted by the Kurds, who no doubt thought they were seeing a big movement of troops to the front line — and called in air support.
If this version of events is true, it is a bitter irony for the villagers.
It would mean their brave opposition to the Islamic State resulted in a brutal attack by American aircraft AGAINST MEN FIGHTING TO SAVE THEIR VILLAGE, BATTLING 'ISIS'.
Abu Khalil is haunted by that night of carnage and destruction.
“It was past midnight. We were sleeping.
We were suddenly wakened by a huge explosion.
The house shook. The windows shattered. There was shrapnel in the walls.
I ran out and saw my neighbor’s house completely destroyed.
He told me, ‘Abu Khalil, I managed to rescue my wife and son but I can’t find my six-month-old baby. Help me!’
I could hear people calling from underneath the rubble.
My neighbor’s mother was crying out.
She’s 70.
I pulled her out, along with a boy and his mother. They were all OK."
“My mother and my aunt both came running to help dig through the rubble.
But while we did this, a helicopter — an Apache — came overhead.
It fired.
They had machine guns with explosive bullets.
I was hit. I still have the shrapnel in my body.
I fell into the hole made by the airstrike.
That was what saved me.
The helicopter circled round again and fired a second time.
My mother and aunt were killed.
The woman and her son I’d rescued were killed.
Everyone but me was killed.
Three powerful rockets were used in the first airstrike. They left a two-meter deep hole in the ground. Anyone could see the hole until the Kurdish militia filled it.
They don’t let anyone go near the place or take pictures.
Nineteen people died in that one house."
WHO AMONG US CAN FORGET THE FOOTAGE THAT WAS LEAKED OF THE AMERICAN HELICOPTER CREWS KILLING THE REUTERS JOURNALIST/CAMERA CREW, ATTACKING THE VAN FULL OF CHILDREN, THE FARMERS IN THEIR FIELDS TRYING TO PLOW AT NIGHT?
WHO CAN IGNORE THE TESTIMONIES OF OUR OWN MILITARY WHO ADMITTED AMERICAN AND "COALITION" TROOPS WENT DOOR-TO-DOOR IN IRAQ, KICKING IN THOSE DOORS, THEN KILLING EVERYONE INSIDE, EVEN RAPING WOMEN BEFORE KILLING THEM?
YES, "WAR IS HELL" AND WAR DRIVES GOOD MEN INSANE, BUT WAR ALSO EXCUSES THE TRULY BAD MEN, WHO SEE THIS AS "SPORT", WHO KNOW THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH MURDER.
IS SYRIA ANY DIFFERENT?
SAME THING IN KHASHAM
A report logged on Oct. 17, 2014 cites the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as the source.
The group, which has a network of sources on the ground across Syria, reported the death of a number of civilians as the result of a coalition strike on an oil facility in Khasham, Syria.
Local activists reportedly named four of the victims, saying they were fuel tank drivers.
The incident was subject to a credibility assessment, but it did not make it to the investigation stage.
The coalition notes in its assessment that a strike DID take place on the facility on Oct. 16, but reported that aircrews "did not observe any personnel on their targeting pod prior to weapon release."
[BECAUSE AIR CREWS DID NOT REPORT CIVILIANS IN THE TARGET AREA] the "investigators" concluded that there was “insufficient evidence” to determine civilian casualties.
So it was never fully investigated.
In other cases, reports of civilian deaths are
deemed not credible without ANY explanation.
BACK IN IRAQ
One report, the initial source
of which was a freelance journalist who posted a picture of a partially
destroyed house on Twitter, came on Jan. 22, 2015 in Nineveh province,
Iraq, but even with photographic evidence, it was dismissed.
The coalition’s credibility assessment notes that a total of 32
targets were struck in the province on Jan. 21 and 22, six of which
involved striking buildings.
“Initial assessment is that only 2 strikes
[are] possible for this allegation (one was engaged by UAV {Unmanned Aerial Vehicle}, both had UAV
coverage)” the coalition notes.
But like so many others, the coalition’s assessment
closes with the words: “Not credible. No further inquiry required.”
There is no further explanation in the coalition’s check.
25 YEARS OF BOMBING IRAQ
January 21, 2016
CNN reports: “Nearly 19,000 civilians were killed in Iraq between January 2014 and October 2015 — a toll the United Nations calls ‘staggering’ in a new report [PDF].
“The figure of 19,000 is the number of dead from armed conflict. Previous studies like the landmark Lancet studies estimate ‘excess deaths’ due to violence as well as lack of water, food, shelter, medicine, etc.
This study notes, ‘In addition, the number of civilians who have died from the secondary effects of armed conflict and violence — such as lack of access to basic food, water or medical care — is unknown.’ So the number of dead is higher than 19,000 for this period; we don’t know how much higher.”
A 2006 Lancet study estimated over 650,000 excess deaths from the 2003 invasion.
In 1998, Denis Halliday, who had just resigned as the head of the UN “oil-for-food” program, gave a speech on Capitol Hill, citing a “conservative estimate” of “child mortality for children under five years of age is from five to six thousand per month.”
See: accuracy.org/iraq.
Later in 1998, Halliday warned that the long-term U.S. policies and social strains of bombings and sanctions threatened the rise of a “Taliban-type” movement — in effect foreseeing the rise of ISIS.
[See video and transcript.]
[READ ANOTHER ARTICLE ON THIS AT MOTHER JONES, <HERE>.]
[CANADA ALSO HAS CONTINUED BOMBING IRAQ FOR 25 YEARS.]
The United States has been bombing Iraq almost continuously for a quarter of a century.
In fact, the U.S. bombings over the years were often based on false or dubious rationales, most obviously the 2003 invasion under the pretext of ridding Iraq of non-existent weapons of mass destruction, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
The initial 1991 attack obliterated the infrastructure of Iraq.
There were bombings of Iraq throughout the 1990s, they never stopped.
RAED JARRAR, rjarrar at afsc.org
Jarrar is the government relations manager with the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization.
His colleagues recently stated in a Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed:
“Saturday marked 25 years since the 1991 launch of Operation Desert Storm with bombing attacks against Baghdad and other cities in Iraq. U.S. ground troops entered the country by late February and a cease-fire agreement was signed in March.
A quarter century later, Iraq is still spiraling down, the United States is still bombing, and a devastating war rages in Syria, further destabilizing the region.”
The group also recently released a statement about the start of the 1991 bombing:
“In just over a month, thousands of civilians, including families hiding in bomb shelters, had been killed as well as tens of thousands of Iraqi troops, including those withdrawing from Kuwait.
It was a massive bombing campaign. Tremendous damage had been inflicted on homes, businesses, and infrastructure. All while Iraq was dealing with harsh, painful economic sanctions.
A UN report concluded that the impact of the war had reduced Iraq to a ‘pre-industrial age.’
HARDLINERS IN THE MILITARY
War will always result in civilian casualties — and
some in the US military want the strategy to recognize that.
Those in
uniform cannot state their views openly but a former US Air Force
general, David Deptula, argues that the current policy is imposing
restrictions on the fighting men and women in the field well beyond the
laws of war.
“The laws of armed conflict do not require, nor do they
expect, a target of zero unintentional civilian casualties,” he told me.
“There is no such thing as immaculate warfare, it’s a horrible thing,
an ugly thing, and … we need to finish it as rapidly as possible…What is
the logic of a policy that restricts the use of air power to avoid the
possibility of collateral damage, while allowing the certainty of the
Islamic State’s crimes against humanity?”
[WHAT ABOUT OUR OWN "CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY"?
The Pentagon press secretary, Rear Adm. John Kirby,
has said: “No other military on Earth takes the concerns over collateral
damage and civilian casualties more seriously than we do.”
Yet, as the
examples show, there has been no honest official estimate of how
many civilians the United States has killed in Iraq and Syria.
Even if
civilian casualties are an inevitable part of a “just” war, the Western
public is being fed the comforting illusion that war can be fought
without shedding innocent blood.
And that is simply not the case.
DRONE WARS
Chris Woods, the founder of Airwars who has dealt
more closely with the coalition than perhaps any other journalist,
thinks the problem may be one of the military’s investigative ability,
rather than an attempt to cover anything up.
“I think this is often more cockup than conspiracy.
Quite often the UK or France will report airstrikes on a particular day
at a particular location — while in its own reporting the coalition
makes no mention at all of those cities or towns.
But then what's often being summarized is perhaps dozens of munitions releases at multiple locations, compressed into a handful of more media-friendly reports of 'airstrikes.'”
The result is that Americans are led to believe that
the air campaign in Syria and Iraq can be waged shedding very few
innocent lives.
IT'S THE SAME IN PAKISTAN.
A new report from a team of British and Pakistani journalists finds one U.S. drone strike occurs every four days in Pakistan.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan have killed as many as 775 civilians, including 168 children, since 2004.
The report also challenges a recent claim by President Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser, John Brennan, that no civilians have been killed in the drone attacks for nearly a year.
According to the Bureau's researchers, at least 45 civilians were killed in 10 U.S. attacks during the last year. (NOTE: THIS WAS IN 2011)
AND THEN THERE WERE THE 69 PAKISTANI SCHOOL KIDS KILLED IN ONE DRONE STRIKE DURING THE BUSH 2 REIGN, KIDS AMERICAN 'INTELLIGENCE' KNEW WERE IN THAT BUILDING, BUT THE DRONE FIRED ANYWAY, TO KILL ONE SO-CALLED TERRORIST, THEIR TEACHER.
AFGHANISTAN
IN THE SAME YEAR THAT THE 69 PAKISTANI SCHOOL CHILDREN WERE MURDERED, AMERICA HAD TO ADMIT THAT "PERHAPS 5 AFGHAN CHILDREN ARE KILLED EACH DAY" BY AMERICAN FORCES.
WHY?
THEY ARE SENT OUT TO GATHER WOOD, FOOD, ANYTHING TO HELP KEEP THEIR FAMILIES ALIVE.
THEY ARE STRAFED BY HELICOPTER, SHOT BY TROOPS, SOMETIMES STEP ON LAND MINES/IEDs...BUT THEY DIE.
"UNFORTUNATE CASUALTIES OF WAR", SAYS THE U.S.
5 KIDS A DAY?
IN APRIL, 2013, A NATO STRIKE IN AFGHANISTAN LEFT 11 CIVILIANS DEAD, 10 OF THEM CHILDREN.
Afghan hospital bombing: Civilians 'accidentally struck
10 PATIENTS, 3 OF THEM CHILDREN, DEAD."OUR MISTAKE, SORRY", SAID THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION.
THE DEAD ARE STILL DEAD.
"War-related Death, Injury, and Displacement in Afghanistan and Pakistan 2001-2014"
During the war in Afghanistan (2001–present), over 26,000 civilian deaths due to war-related violence have been documented; 29,900 civilians have been wounded.
Over 91,000 Afghans, including civilians, soldiers and militants, are recorded to have been killed in the conflict, and the number who have died through indirect causes related to the war may include an additional 360,000 people.
These numbers do not include those who have died in Pakistan.
FROM THE GUARDIAN, UK:
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) publishes statistics on civilian casualties, splitting them into deaths caused by government/military forces, anti-government forces and so on.
True, they're not very visible on the UNAMA site and are not updated regularly in a visible way - but they do seem to be the best we can get.
They published a report in February this year which has provided these details.
Obviously, collecting accurate statistics in one of the most dangerous countries in the world is difficult.
But the paucity of reliable data on this means that one of the key measures of the war has been missing from almost all reporting.
WHY DID WE INVADE AFGHANISTAN WHEN WE KNEW USAMA BIN LADEN WAS HIDING IN PAKISTAN?
WHY DID WE TURN ON THE TALIBAN WHOM RONALD REAGAN HAD CALLED "FREEDOM FIGHTERS", THOSE 'MUJAHADEEM' WHOM HE ARMED AND TRAINED AND FUNDED AGAINST RUSSIA, WHOM HE PERSONALLY DEDICATED A SPACE SHUTTLE LAUNCH TO?
LOOK UP "OPERATION CYCLONE" SOMETIMES.
HERE'S A COUPLE LINKS TO HELP FIND THAT <HERE> AND <HERE> .
IT WAS ONE OF THE LONGEST AND MOST EXPENSIVE COVERT OPERATIONS EVER UNDERTAKEN BY OUR CIA, ET AL. (2003. Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. Atlantic Monthly Press, page 246, 285 and 302)
AFTER AMERICA HAD SPENT BILLIONS TO HELP THE EARLY TALIBAN, WE WATCHED THEM MORPH INTO WHAT WE CLAIM TO BE FIGHTING TODAY...BUT KIDS ARE STILL DYING, AS ARE OUR OWN BRAVEST AND BEST, OUR OWN SONS AND DAUGHTERS, IN THAT SANDLOT WAR.
THEN, AS NOW IN SYRIA, IT WAS A DAMNED PROXY WAR WITH THE U.S. USING THIRD WORLD NATIONS AGAINST RUSSIA.We have proof of that in "Congressional Appropriations", the SAME place we can see that the BUSH #1 regime sent "agricultural" checks to Saddam up until one month before we invaded Iraq ( invaded it as a butt-kiss to Kuwait and to punish Saddam for going "rogue", for starting that "oil for GOLD" idea of his.)
"The U.S. shifted its interest from Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops. American funding of Afghan resistance leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and his Hezbi Islami party was cut off immediately."
[ SEE: Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. by Gilles Kepel Translated from French by Anthony F. Roberts]
Russia left, game over, you see.
IF, IF EVER, AMERICA'S INVASIONS AND INTERFERENCES WERE ABOUT HELPING "POOR OPPRESSED PEOPLE"ANYWHERE, DON'T YOU THINK WE'D HAVE STAYED BEHIND AND REBUILT WHAT WE DESTROYED, HELP THE PEOPLE RECOVER FROM OUR ATTACKS, AT LEAST REPAIR THE INFRASTRUCTURE, MAYBE GET THE POWER BACK ON, GIVE THE PEOPLE BACK CLEAN WATER, HELP THEM RAISE FOOD, TEACH THEM TO CREATE A STRONG, UNITED GOVERNMENT, REMOVE ALL THE DEPLETED URANIUM AS BEST WE CAN?
BUT, NO, NO, WE GO IN, STIR THE PROVERBIAL HORNETS' NEST UNTIL ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE, THEN HAVE A FEW THOUSAND BOMB RUNS, FLATTEN A FEW HUNDRED TOWNS, KILL A FEW THOUSAND CIVILIANS, AND THEN, EVENTUALLY, LEAVE...WELL, NOT REALLY LEAVE, BUT SAY WE LEFT.THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE LIED TO AND SCAMMED, AND THE PROPAGANDA MACHINES GO INTO WARP DRIVE TO DUMB US DOWN TO THE FACTS AND TRUTH SO WE AGREE TO REV UP THE OLD WAR MACHINE, MAKE WALL STREET A FEW TRILLION BUCKS TO MAKE THE WEAPONS OF WAR, TO "GO TO WAR", WHILE WE WAGE UNDECLARED WARS AGAINST NATIONS WHICH NEVER ONCE ATTACKED US.
AND THEN WE FIND ANOTHER "THEATER OF WAR" AND THE PLAY STARTS ANEW... IT'S CALLED "DEMOCRACY FOR ALL! AMERICA WILL SAVE YOU!"
SAVE YOU....
ONE BOMB AT A TIME...ONE DRONE STRIKE AT A TIME, BY KILLING YOUR CHILDREN AND LAYING WASTE TO YOUR COUNTRY, BY PUSHING YOU BACK TO THE STONE AGE, IF NECESSARY, BUT BY ALL THE GODS, YOU WILL CHOOSE DEMOCRACY AND BOW TO AMERICA...OR ELSE...OR ELSE ...OR ELSE THIS....
OR ELSE..."U.S. drone strikes have killed scores of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia"
ADD IRAQ, LIBYA, SYRIA...KEEP ADDING...
11,000 children have died in Syria since we decided Assad should go.
41 men targeted but 1,147 people killed: US drone strikes
Drone Wars: Armed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles : 16 drone strikes, 321 additional deaths to kill one Taliban leader.
20,000 MISSILES AND BOMBS.
WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE TRUE NUMBER OF DEAD, EITHER OUR OWN DEAD OR THE CIVILIAN DEAD, IN OUR MANY RECENT "WARS".
THE ENEMY, YOU SEE, IS ANYONE WHO GETS IN THE WAY... AND OUR GOVERNMENT WILL JUSTIFY, EXCUSE, IGNORE AND HIDE THE NUMBERS FOR AS LONG AS THEY PLEASE TO CONTINUE INTERFERING IN THE AFFAIRS OF THE NATIONS OF EARTH.
FOR THE TEA ROOM, IT'S ABOUT THE CHILDREN.
IT WILL ALWAYS BE ABOUT THE CHILDREN.
THE WAR ON CHILDREN...
THE NEVER-ENDING WAR ON CHILDREN...
Even in America.
AS A PARENT, I CAN BUT SAY, IN ALL HONESTY...IF ANYONE KILLED A CHILD OF MINE, WHETHER BY ACCIDENT OR ERROR OR INTENT, I WOULD NEVER REST NOR SLEEP UNTIL I SAW THAT PERSON BROUGHT TO WHAT WOULD THEN BE JUST MY IDEA OF PROPER JUSTICE... JUSTICE "WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE"...
AND THAT, GENTLE READERS, IS ONE WAY WE ARRIVE AT UNENDING, PERPETUAL, ETERNAL WAR...
IT'S CALLED REVENGE...
IT'S NOT A "PROPER" THING, NOT A "MORAL" THING, REVENGE, BUT TELL THAT TO ANYONE WHO HAS BURIED A MURDERED CHILD...
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