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By Gore Vidal
$40.00
By Ted Gioia
$18.45
$19
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U.S. Air Force Photo
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Following a suspected U.S. drone attack that slaughtered 25 people – including eight civilians – in northwest Pakistan, American military personnel have allegedly vacated the Pakistani Shamsi Air Base, a key hub for U.S. drone activity.
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AP / Ben Curtis
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Reports are in that Moammar Gadhafi’s forces are firing into residential neighborhoods with cluster bombs and ground-to-ground rockets, weapons criticized for their indiscriminate trajectories, as loyalists vow to crush the anti-Gadhafi rebellion in the city of Misurata.
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By Michael Kountouris, Greece —
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AP / Anja Niedringhaus
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As a NATO-led international effort to “protect the Libyan people” enters its second day, the U.S. says its no-fly zone is now in place while Russia and the Arab League have condemned the joint attack.
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news.bbc.co.uk
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The Gadhafi government has declared a cease-fire in its offensive against opposition fighters, apparently in response to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973, which calls for a no-fly zone and “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians.
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AP / Rafiq Maqbool
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A firefight between foreign troops and insurgents in Afghanistan last week reportedly led to the deaths of more than 50 civilians. The confrontation came in Kunar province, close to Pakistan, a region that has become a flashpoint for violence because of insurgent activity on the border.
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AP / Pete Muller
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It was just last month that Sudan’s southern half voted to secede from its northern neighbor, but bloody clashes between south Sudan’s army and fighters loyal to a renegade soldier have reportedly left almost 140 people dead, most of them civilians.
Posted on Feb 11, 2011
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AP / Alexandre Meneghini
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Estimates now place 2010 as the bloodiest year yet in Mexico’s ongoing war against the drug cartels. Drug-related conflict led to the deaths of more than 15,000 people last year as the government and cartels continued to do battle across the country.
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AP / Gerry Broome
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The mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater has argued in court that the company’s private contractors who killed 17 Iraqis in Baghdad in 2007 should not be held accountable. Why? It’s Washington’s fault, they claim, as Blackwater fighters were acting as employees of the U.S. government at the time.
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AP / Mohammad Iqbal
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Two bomb attacks on mosques left more than 60 people dead and scores injured in northwestern Pakistan. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the most lethal attack, in which a 17-year-old suicide bomber struck a Sunni mosque during Friday prayers.
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guardian.co.uk
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British soldiers are suspected of murdering a number of Iraqi civilians in the wake of the 2003 invasion. But military prosecutors have resisted filing any charges, saying there is no realistic prospect of winning convictions.
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AP / Brennan Linsley
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At a point when news from the Afghanistan war seems to be at its worst ever—low public support in the U.S., record-level casualties and falling confidence in NATO’s mission—new bad news tells of at least 21 people being killed, including U.S. troops, children and Afghan security force members, in a span of only 48 hours.
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AP / Gerry Broome
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The company formerly known as Blackwater (now renamed Xe Services) has agreed to pay $42 million in fines, thereby avoiding criminal charges for the hundreds of alleged export violations it committed as a leading private contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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White House / Lawrence Jackson
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With civilian casualties in Afghanistan up sharply this year, President Hamid Karzai has asked President Obama for a “strategic review” of the way the war there is being fought.
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Flickr / U.S. Army
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With the resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal and (we hope) the waning of the notion of counterinsurgency, the U.S. is looking toward another Afghanistan strategy—“counterterrorism”—one that focuses on targeted killing of insurgents, rather than the whole “hearts and minds” thing.
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AP / Rafiq Maqool
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“Courageous restraint,” or stringent restrictions on engaging the enemy that were implemented to cut down civilian casualties in Afghanistan, is under fire by Britain’s top general there after soldiers complained against the perceived inflexibility of the protocol.
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez
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Gen. David Petraeus has hinted that he might rethink the rules of engagement now that he’s in charge of the war in Afghanistan. The current rules, ushered in by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, were designed to reduce civilian casualties but have proved unpopular with the rank and file. Afghan civilians, who already avoid contact with U.S. military, are worried.
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Wikimedia Commons / U.S. Army Sgt. David Alvarado
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Even in the face of increased military deployment and the fact that 2010 is on course to be one of the deadliest years for foreign troops in Afghanistan, the number of civilians killed there by U.S. and NATO forces has reportedly decreased due to stricter rules of engagement.
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Activists trying to bring humanitarian aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip ran afoul of the Israeli military on Sunday. Shots were fired after masked Israeli gunmen descended from helicopters hovering over the flotilla as it made its way through international waters.
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The U.S. commander in Afghanistan has announced that a stray rocket used during an offensive against Taliban insurgents has killed 12 civilians. The commander has apologized to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the incident.
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Flickr / UK in Afghanistan
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According to NATO’s newly appointed chief civilian representative, 2010 in Afghanistan will see more violence and casualties, but will also mark a turning point in the fight against the Taliban.
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AP / Khalid Mohammed
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A group that monitors the death toll in Iraq believes the number of civilian deaths in 2009 to be less than half the number for 2008. Yet the United Kingdom-based group said that terrorist violence “still afflicts Iraq’s population more than any other.”
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AP / Nasser Ishtayeh
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Two separate incidents have left six Palestinians dead at the hands of Israeli soldiers, marking a significant escalation in violence that comes almost exactly a year after the Israeli army began a bloody attack on the Gaza Strip.
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thisislondon.co.uk
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The British Defense Ministry is investigating 33 cases of alleged abuse of Iraqi civilians by its soldiers. Many of the allegations, which include sexual attacks and torture, reflect U.S. soldiers’ acts depicted in photos from the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
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guardian.co.uk / Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
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Last Friday, a NATO airstrike on two hijacked fuel trucks killed at least 90 people in Afghanistan. The Guardian, determined not to let the story pass into the ether of forgotten wartime reporting, managed to interview the families of some of the strike’s victims in a moving exposé of the incredible pain of war.
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guardian.co.uk
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The war in Afghanistan should weigh heavy on the public’s mind, given the recent increase in troop levels and grumblings from high military officials about the manner in which the war is being fought. Now there’s news that a NATO airstrike has killed 90 people, 40 of them believed to be civilians, in the northern part of the country.
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guim.co.uk
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As President Obama continues to push more U.S. troops into Afghanistan, the U.N. is reporting that civilian casualties in the war-torn country have spiked, increasing almost 25 percent above 2008 figures. In the first six months of this year, 1,013 civilians were killed.
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U.S. Navy / Lt. j.g. James Dietle
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Gen. Stanley McChrystal is rolling out a new order to U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan with the hope of reducing rampant civilian casualties. If soldiers find themselves in a fight near Afghan homes, they are to “remove themselves from the area” as long as they can do so “safely, without any undue danger to the forces,” a military spokesman explained.
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USMC / Lance Cpl. Chad J. Pulliam
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U.S. forces in Afghanistan have developed a reputation for bombing first and asking questions later. According to The New York Times, an internal Pentagon investigation confirms that the rules of engagement were not followed properly during airstrikes on May 4, resulting in the deaths of 20 to 140 civilians (depending on whether you take the U.S. or Afghan estimate).
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Flickr / trokilinochchi
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The London Times reports that the final weeks of fighting in Sri Lanka’s civil war claimed more than 20,000 civilian lives, mostly at the hands of government forces. A U.N. official tells the paper the actual figure is “Higher. ... Keep going.” The government kept aid workers and reporters away during a three-week bombardment that ultimately ended the 26-year war.
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AP photo / Hatem Omar
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Hot on the heels of a damning U.N. report, Israeli soldiers have offered personal accounts of atrocities committed in Gaza, including the murder of unarmed women, children and the elderly. As one soldier put it, “... the lives of Palestinians, let’s say, are much, much less important than the lives of our soldiers.”
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abcnews.com
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The toll in the recent spate of clashes in the decades-long battle between Tamil Tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan government has been officially estimated: 40 civilians are being killed every day, with more than 100 wounded, as artillery shells and gun battles between the two sides devastate the Sri Lankan northeast.
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guardian.co.uk
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On the heels of Israel’s election and its bloody three-week assault on the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority is pressing the International Criminal Court to investigate the possibility of war crimes committed by Israeli commanders.
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Maan Images / Mohamed Al-Zanon
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About 1,300 Palestinians dead, $2 billion in damage and thousands of devastated families later, Israel claims it has officially pulled its troops from the Gaza Strip after its three-week assault—with no formal deal between Israel and Hamas and thus no real change in relations between the two sides.
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guardian.co.uk
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Following previous accusations by aid agencies, a video has surfaced amid Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip that shows images “consistent with the use of white phosphorus shells”—i.e. chemical weaponry. The Israeli military has denied use of the chemical agent, which can burn skin to the bone.
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AP photo / Mary Altaffer
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It is unsurprising that a group like Human Rights Watch has condemned the Bush government for jettisoning the U.S. role as a defender of global human rights: Numerous examples—Guantanamo, gay marriage, Iraq, etc.—accentuate this failure.
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Theatrum Belli
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By Robert Fisk — So once again, Israel has opened the gates of hell to the Palestinians. Forty civilian refugees dead in a United Nations school, three more in another. Not bad for a night’s work in Gaza by the army that believes in “purity of arms”. But why should we be surprised?
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The New York Times
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Following a three-hour pause in its aerial bombardment to allow those in the Gaza Strip to “get medical attention, get supplies ... whatever they need,” Israel has resumed its attack, although it promised additional halts amid reports that Hamas and Israel are working out details of a cease-fire. Overall, 660 Palestinians have been reported killed, including more than 200 children.
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Ma'an Images
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The United Nations marked Israel’s seventh day of aerial attacks by warning of a “critical emergency” in the Gaza Strip, as Palestinians endure food and medical supply shortages and distribution problems even as estimates of dead and wounded Palestinians continue to rise.
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commons.wikimedia.org
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Five Blackwater guards were indicted on charges of manslaughter on Monday in a case that will test the legal accountability of private contractors in Iraq. A sixth guard pleaded guilty. The Blackwater employees killed 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians without justification at a Baghdad traffic circle, the Justice Department alleges.
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guardian.co.uk
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A secret executive order signed by President Bush grants U.S. military forces “carte blanche” to launch counterterrorist operations inside Pakistan. An attack last week under the auspices of the unprecedented July order is raising concerns: Pakistani officials declared the operation illegal, and international analysts fear an escalating conflict could start a regionwide war.
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AP photo / Fraidoon Pooyaa
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Iraq isn’t the only U.S.-occupied nation looking for some sovereignty. Afghan officials are calling for more regulation of foreign troops amid an uproar over U.S. airstrikes. One recent U.S.-led attack, according a U.N. investigation, probably killed 90 civilians—mostly children.
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Imagine this happening in the U.S.: Forty-seven people, including the bride, are killed on their way to a wedding after an airstrike on “militants” goes off course. Of course, this happened not in the U.S. but in Afghanistan, and, of course, the attack’s civilian toll was initially denied by the U.S. military.
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nytimes.com / Michael Kamber
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After a seven week surge in violent street clashes and an estimated 1,000 civilian deaths in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad alone, U.S. and Iraqi forces are now preparing an overwhelming military offensive they hope will completely annihilate active Shia resistance movements and pacify the area, making it safe for occupation.
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American and British troops joined forces with Iraqi government troops battling the Mahdi Army in Basra and Sadr City on Saturday as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s offensive, launched Tuesday, passed the fifth day with little sign of reprieve and a great deal riding on its outcome.
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The New York Times / James Hill
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By Patrick Cockburn — All governments lie in wartime, but American and British propaganda in Iraq over the past five years has been more untruthful than in any other conflict since the First World War.
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Flickr / sfthqphotos
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The governor of Tibet has denied reports that Chinese security forces fired on the civilians and monks who have been demonstrating in the capital city of Lhasa and neighboring provinces. Opposition leaders say 80 or more protesters have been killed and witnesses have reported Chinese soldiers shooting at monks.
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The Iraq occupation has once again taken a violent turn. Dozens of Iraqis were killed on Tuesday as the average number of Iraqis killed or found dead each day continues to rise. Eight U.S. soldiers died on Monday, the most in one day since last September. U.S. military officials, however, have been anxious to downplay any talk of a trend.
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Last week at the gates of the mercenary company Blackwater, nonviolent protesters who re-enacted an infamous Blackwater shooting were arrested. As “Blackwater” author Jeremy Scahill notes: “The arrest of the activists and the subsequent five days they spent locked up in jail is more punishment than any Blackwater mercenaries have received for their deadly actions against Iraqi civilians.”
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