Sorry
We Killed Your Children
But It Couldn't Be Helped
By Thomas Riggins
20 June, 2007
Countercurrents.org
Its
getting harder and harder to believe U.S. government spokespersons when
they imply that the killing of Afghan children is something we try to
avoid. The more you read the news reports the more it looks like our
policy is one of just not giving a hoot about children and other civilians.
It seems like we just don’t care if we kill them or not.
Tuesday’s New York
Times (6-19-07) has a story by Barry Bearak and Taimoor Shah (“7
Children Killed in Coalition Airstrike on Religious Compound in Afghanistan”)
that shows what I mean.
The Times reports that the
children were killed in an airstrike against a compound “thought”
[therefore not known] to be a Qaeda sanctuary. Its nice to know we bomb
the Hell out of people on a suspicion they might be enemies.
The paper also reports that
up to 50 civilians may have been killed in combat between the U.S. led
forces and the Taliban in Uruzgan province. The head of the provincial
council said,”I have seen with my own eyes that women and children
were badly hit by bombing. The fighting is inside the villages, so that’s
why the civilians are suffering casualties. I have met some families
who have lost almost everyone.”
Since when is it ok to bomb
and kill everyone in sight just because some enemy troops hide out in
a village. A rural village can be surrounded and starved out. It may
take longer but its better than mass murder of women and children just
to save some time. There are other non lethal ways to deal with this
type of situation as well. US forces should not be engaging in mass
murder.
The Times says that the compound
with the children in it ( which was only “thought” to be
an enemy compound) was a “targeted strike.” Keep that in
mind when reading the totally insincere and hypocritical explanations
of the US army spokesman trying to justify child murder.
“We are truly sorry,”
army Major Chris Belcher said, “for the innocent lives lost in
this attack. We had surveillance on the compound all day and saw no
indications there were children inside the building.” Well, without
X-Ray vision it would be pretty hard to see inside the building. This
just means the US did not know who or what was in the target. It could
have been anybody. It is criminal to blow up such a target. It is, in
fact, a war crime and should be treated as such. Even the Afghan president
Hamid Karzai has complained about the high (and unnecessary) number
of civilian deaths.
Not content with his original
statement, Maj. Belcher decided to blame the Afghans for the death of
the children. It was due to the “cowardice” of Al Qaeda.
“Witness statements taken early this morning clearly put the blame
on the suspected [still only suspects?] terrorists, saying that if the
children attempted to go outside they were beaten and pushed away from
the door” according to a press release from the US led forces.
This is definitely a crock.
This was a “targeted bombing” the whole point of which is
catch the “enemy” with his pants down. So the “terrorists,"
not expecting a bomb, would have no motive to keep the children inside
the compound. What for? To be safe? They would know from experience
that mere children wouldn’t stop us from blowing them up. If they
thought we were going to bomb they would have been long gone. So this
press release doesn’t make sense.
Who could the witnesses have
been? If they lived to tell about what they saw they must have been
coming and going in and out of the compound. If the compound was under
“surveillance” then either they were seen to be unarmed
civilians so the strike was misdirected and should have been called
off, or they were carrying weapons and were thus the enemy ( and so
we need not use expressions such as “suspected” and “thought
to be”).
In other words, the whole
story and the press release have the mark of the usual cover up when
trigger happy officers order their subordinates to shoot up a village
regardless of what will happen to the civilian population. But there
were seven dead “militants” found in the rubble. What about
that proof? I can only remark that in every killing spree the US and
Nato forces
conduct all the bodies of men (and sometimes women) are chalked up to
being “militants.”
The Times reported that it
was impossible to get any independent confirmation of what happened.
I, for one, won’t take the US govenment’s word for anything
after all the lies that have been spread about what goes on in Iraq
and Afghanistan. [Remember how Pat Tillman died fighting the Taliban?]
Khalid Farouqi, an MP, said,
“Nobody can accept the killing of women and children. It is not
acceptable in either Islam or international law.” The US ambassador,
William B. Wood, basing himself on the utterly ridiculous aforementioned
press release, said: “Unfortunately, when the Taliban [before
it was al Qaeda] are using civilians in this tactical way, instances
of casualties just like instances from friendly fire, cannot be completely
avoided.” Especially since, as with “friendly fire”,
we don’t know what we are shooting at and bombing but we do it
any way.
Finally, a quote from a medical
doctor from the region where the children were killed. “The aircraft
is targeting the civilians inside and outside of their houses. There
are many villagers under the rubble.”
Thomas Riggins
is the book review editor of Political Affairs and can be reached at
[email protected]
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