Truthdig - Ear to the Ground - Afghan Civilian Death Crisis

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Afghan Civilian Death Crisis

Posted on Jul 6, 2007

A tragic milestone has been marked in Afghanistan: The number of civilian deaths attributed to American- and NATO-led forces in the last half-year has outstripped the number caused by insurgents.

Los Angeles Times:

The upsurge in deaths at the hands of Western forces has been driven by Taliban tactics as well as by actions of the American military and its allies.

But the growing toll is causing widespread disillusionment among the Afghan people, eroding support for the government of President Hamid Karzai and exacerbating political rifts among NATO allies about the nature and goals of the mission in Afghanistan.

More than 500 Afghan civilians have been reported killed this year, and the rate has dramatically increased in the last month.

Read more

TAGS: afghanistan civilian death insurgent nato taliban

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By felicity, July 8, 2007 at 2:45 pm #

Big article in the latest ‘New Yorker’ on the ‘poppy problem’ in Afghanistan. The Taliban managed to eradicate it completely. Now there are 400,000 acres of it (supplying 92 percent of the world’s total opium supply) a 59 percent increase over the previous year.)

We’ve got private contractors and other flotsam and jetsam of Rambo mentality going around whacking the pretty plants at the same time as trying to placate the poor growers that even though their livelihood was just cut out from under them, we Americans are really there to help them.

But hey, we’re making friends. We’re not creating terrorists, are we?

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By Dale Headley, July 7, 2007 at 10:23 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Why are young Americans dying in Afghanistan? No, it’s not to fight al Queda; they left long ago. No, it’s not to eradicate opium cultivation; that has only exploded under our care. No, it’s not for freedom and democacy; the Afghanis don’t want us there. It’s about what it has always been about: oil. Bush didn’t really care that the terrorists who attacked us had trained in Afghanistan. If that had been the case, he would have attacked Saudi Arabia, from whence came most of the attackers and most of their financial support. He simply wanted to sit astride the largest petroleum pipeline on the Eurasian continent and be able to shut off the flow if he so chose. That is why the neocons intend to remain in Afghanistan forever, no matter how many women, children, and young soldiers die.

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By QuyTran, July 6, 2007 at 3:18 pm #

There’s no big deal under the eyes of invasion forces

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