NP? the cause of civilian deaths in Afghanistan

[Doug Millison]

Malign:
"The civilian dead owe their deaths primarily to a government that knowingly
provided haven to terrorists, invited the war, and used the civilians as
human protection during the fighting.  "

Nope.  Primary cause of civilian deaths in Afghanistan would be the bombs,
bullets, and missiles fired by US forces  plus the disruption to the aid
programs caused by the US attack and subsequent death of children (20 a day
in one camp, I read yesterday) and other civilian refugese.  Without the US
attack, those specific civilians would not have died in those specific
circumstances, no way. You may not feel guilty, but our US tax dollars are
paying for this, so we all share responsiblity for it. Our leaders have
decided to go ahead and pursue these tactics, despite knowing that the
attacks will cause "collateral damage" -- an Orwellian phrase that masks
the fact that we're killing innocent civilians  in the process of
accomplishing military goals.  I believe, along with many other observers,
that the US could have accomplished its anti-terrorist goals without
launching this war, which is proving disastrous for the Afghan people.
They may be free of the Taliban, but if that means free to starve and
freeze to death, after taking the casualities they've taken in our attack,
I'm not sure how happy that makes them in the long run; judging from
reports of the journalists and aid officials who have actually made the
effort to talk to the civilian victims and refugees, it sounds as if many
of them would prefer not to freeze or starve to death or lose loved ones to
US bombs.  The truth of the humanitarian tragedy in Afghanistan will
eventually emerge -- as it did in Vietnam -- and when that time  comes,
perhaps more Americans will have the occasion to rethink tactics in the
light of what was really accomplished this time around.

Barbara's right to compare bin Laden's laughter on that video to the way US
officials and TV broadcasters (we don't have to call them journalists any
more, now that they have revealed themselves to be propagandists) have
chortled and chuckled at the death and destruction caused by American
bombs, bullets, and missiles.

Pynchon is very good at exposing the pathos that underlies the kind of
triumphalism that marks the mainstream American response to the war so far,
and exposing the dirty money trail that leads from the human tragedy of war
back to the laughter of war profiteers all the way to the bank.



Doug Millison - Writer/Editor/Web Editorial Consultant
millison at online-journalist.com
www.Online-Journalist.com