Well, it's being reported prominently that several Americans, including a diplomat, as well as an Afghan doctor, have been killed by the Taliban. Fair enough - it's certainly newsworthy. In a display of fairness that is highly unusual in today's media, Drudge Report also linked to an article talking about civilians killed during the same timeframe. In other words, today's casualty list for the United States and its supporters:
Three American civilians
One Afghan doctor
Three American soldiers
Casualties for the Taliban:
Eight insurgents
On the other hand, there's another less-reported casualty list, that of the Afghan civilians, who apparently matter so little to Americans that a UK news site had to report it instead. Casualties? Ten children and two women.
Leaving aside the fact that the war is literally accomplishing nothing, one has to wonder - who decided that this kind of ratio is acceptable? Common sense would dictate that firing high explosives into population centers would result in disproportionate civilian deaths. The ratio we have here is for every two Taliban killed, three innocents died.
Fair trade? While I'm sure a number of Americans would say so, the families of those who died would likely beg to differ. See, here's the big problem in Afghanistan. Most of the hated "insurgents" are just civilians who are angry with U.S. occupation - and understandably so. The rather callous attitude towards civilian casualties only makes it worse, since the death of an innocent loved one, caused by an apparently malicious foreign power, is VERY likely to result in feelings of vengeance, and the Taliban are all too happy to take in these furious Afghans, equip them with rifles, and show them how to build bombs to kill more American soldiers.
In short, this war is self-perpetuating; not all that surprising, though, given that it's the longest-running war in U.S. history.
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