Body Counts From Afghanistan: Mostly Civilians

Dear Mr. President,

A roadside bomb killed an entire family in Afghanistan yesterday—5 adults, 2 children—on their way home from gathering firewood (today’s NYT, p. A4). The Taliban apparently planted the bomb, meant for some passing American military vehicle but roadside bombs don’t distinguish between civilians and soldiers. Also yesterday, a suicide bomber on a motorcycle blew himself up near a military convoy killing 2 American soldiers and an Afghan policeman; unfortunately, it was in front of a school and children were on their way home—at least 9 kids died in addition to the soldiers. Suicide bombs don’t distinguish between civilians and soldiers, either. The article continues: “In this year’s fighting season, Afghan civilians—always the hardest hit by war violence—have borne an even heavier toll than usual.… [I]n the past two weeks, conflict related violence killed 125 civilians and injured an additional 274, a 24 percent increase from the period a year before. Insurgents were responsible for 84 percent of the deaths.” War reports from Afghanistan now sound like the nightly business report or a sporting event—statistics, comparisons, percentages—reminiscent of Vietnam’s body counts. What really struck me, however, was this: “In general, civilian fatalities caused by Western forces, particularly in airstrikes, seem to cause more outrage in the public than insurgent-caused deaths.” Well, duh! We’re the ones who invaded their country; we’re the ones who, for the past 11½ years have shot up and bombed their cities and villages, kicked down their doors, carted off their men (like those 17 in Wardak province that Special Forces tortured and killed). If the shoe were on the other foot, Americans would feel the same resentment and anger toward them as they feel toward us. And the airstrikes, those damned drones you love so much, weapons of terror circling 24/7, dealing pushbutton death from Nevada, New York, Virginia… no defense, no way to protect yourself or your family, no way to shoot back. Give me a human any day, someone I can see, even a Talib is better than an MQ-1 Predator. The war grinds on and will continue to grind on long after we’re gone—well, not exactly gone–there’s the 10,000 Special Forces we’ll leave to continue the mayhem and the 300,000 Afghans we trained to help them and the drones and the CIA and the contractors… and civilians will continue to suffer and die thanks to a Nobel Peace Prize winning president and his clueless predecessor.