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By Avi Shlaim
By T.J. English
$18.45
$13
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U.S. Air Force / Tech. Sgt. JT May III
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The whistle-blower website just dropped 91,000 secret documents, which were simultaneously published by The New York Times, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. There are many revelations and more to come, but we already know that NATO forces appear to be responsible for hundreds of unclaimed civilian deaths and injuries ... continued.
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collateralmurder.com
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Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has defended the U.S. soldiers who were made infamous in a video released by the website Wikileaks last week, saying the critiques of those who fired upon and killed a group of reporters and civilians lack context.
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The website WikiLeaks has found and decrypted a 2007 video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter firing on more than a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists. The U.S. military previously denied knowing how the journalists and civilians died.
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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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news.bbc.co.uk
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When the United States finished bombing Laos back in the early 1970s, it left behind an estimated 80 million unexploded bombs. They are still exploding, maiming an average of 300 people a year in the sparsely populated country. What horrors will our current adventures bring decades from now?
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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 / Fraidoon Pooyaa
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By Robert Fisk — When U.S. troops massacre Iraqi civilians in Haditha because their buddy has been murdered, what is the difference between their revenge and that of Saddam?
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usip.org
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It seems that “personal regret” is deemed sufficient to exculpate the U.S military after the deaths of civilians in U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Gates offered his hollow apologies and promised more accurate targeting in future attacks.
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AP photo / Fraidoon Pooyaa
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Cell-phone footage shot by a doctor in a makeshift morgue in Azizabad, Afghanistan, showing rows of dead Afghan civilians, including several children, has led to a renewed inquiry into an American-led airstrike that occurred on Aug. 22. American officials had previously insisted that only seven civilians had been killed in the attack, but they’re now having to face the possibility that the actual figure could be as high as 90.
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Apparently, the Bush administration is also against straight marriage—if you live in the desert under U.S. military occupation. Tom Engelhardt details seven years of wedding crashing in Afganistan and Iraq, and the notable lack of remorse on the part of the Pentagon.
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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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AP Photo / Abdul Khaleq
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A U.S.-led airstrike on a meeting of Taliban leaders killed a “large number” of civilians, witnesses said. Roughly 50 people were hospitalized for injuries. NATO has said it is considering the use of smaller bombs in order to curtail civilian casualties.
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By Tom Engelhardt — Civilian deaths as a result of ground operations (see Haditha) often evoke cries of barbarism from the media, but the killing of innocents in airstrikes is routinely characterized as “collateral damage” and a cold fact of modern warfare. Tom Engelhardt of Tomdispatch proposes that we start to speak honestly about the devastation American military operations have rained down on Afghanistan and Iraq and see “collateral damage” for what it really is: carnage.
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AP Photo / Karim Kadim
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By Chris Hedges — The veteran foreign correspondent writes that while physical courage is common on the battlefield, moral courage is not. When young men and women are sent to occupy a foreign land—whether Vietnam, Gaza or Iraq—and they encounter constant danger, a population hostile to their presence and a faceless but determined enemy, the value of human life inevitably becomes relative and killing all too quickly becomes murder.
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nomorevictims.org
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Cole Miller of NoMoreVictims.Org, a group that works to find medical sponsorships for injured Iraqi children, talks about the ignored victims of Iraq and the antiwar origins of Mother’s Day.
Posted on May 13, 2007
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