America’s responsibility for the killing of innocents in faraway lands hasn’t ended with the coming of the Obama administration.
Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch.com:
- Though they may be referred to as “collateral damage,” increasingly in all wars, and certainly in counterinsurgency campaigns involving air power, the killing of civilians lies at the heart of the matter, while the killing of soldiers might be thought of as the collateral activity.
- Pretending that these “mistakes” will cease or be ameliorated as long as the war is being prosecuted is little short of folly. After all, “mistake” after “mistake” continues to be made….
- Let me ask you a question: What’s your “safety” really worth? Are you truly willing to trade the lives of Awal Khan’s family for a blanket guarantee of your safety — and not just his family, but all those Afghan one-year olds, all those wedding parties that are…going to be blown away in the years to come for you?
It’s a tragedy that innocent people a dying like this for no fault of their own in Afghanistan or else, but let’s not forget that Afghanistan region is mostly run by tribal militia that is terrorizing the civilian population and forcing a so called “Charia” law, (which do not correspond to any Islamic teachings), the lawlessness and absence of a central government serving and protecting the population allowed native and foreign radical groups using the country as a platform for their evil schemes.
The region (add Pakistan and India) has some very complicated geopolitical and social problems which won’t be solved just militarily but also through development and economic growth.
It has taken this country more than 30 years to get to this disastrous situation but president Obama has only been in office for 3 months, and already had achieved a lot in terms of pushing for engaging Taliban leaders, bringing them into the table in an attempt to alienate Al Qaida.
Peace!