Collateral Casualty
“I believe the perception caused by civilian casualties is one of the most dangerous enemies we face” General McChrystal
Earlier this year Wikileaks caused outrage when they released a video of US aircrew falsely claiming to have encountered a firefight in Baghdad and then laughing when they launched an airstrike which killed a dozen civilians….
Soon they are said to be releasing a similar video of troops in Afghanistan.
The war in Afghanistan has always been a subject of controversy, some say the American’s need to be there while others think they should back off and leave Afghanistan to it.
And you’ll be hard pressed to find an Afghani citizen who doesn’t agree with the latter…we’ve all seen the images of Afghani’s shoutng death to America and burning the flag but what’s the substance behind the hatred?
Put simply many Afghani’s feel the American’s are doing more harm than good and the amount of civilian casualties in the region speaks volumes
According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) 596 civilians were killed by US air strikes in Afghanistan during 2009, although other organizations call this an understatement.
2010 is not off to a good start with almost forty Afghans killed by NATO led troops in a two-week period during April.
On one occasion they opened fire on a car claiming two of the occupants were insurgents and in another they called an air strike on what they thought was a convoy of insurgents preparing to attack a unit of Afghan and International soldiers in the southern Uruzgan Province.
Instead it was innocent women and children found dead.
Of course compensation is offered for lost family members and damaged homes but this goes down like a lead balloon as one one businessman from Kabul puts it:
Afghans must seem like animals to the Americans if they can put prices on them” Ismail- businessman from Kabul
What do you think? Are these casualties just an unpreventable outcome of war or the result of wayward troops with little regard for human life…
Amanda
