Counting the Afghan Dead: America's 'Unconscionable Oversight'

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/19-8


A boy, injured during a NATO air strike, lies on a hospital bed in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province, February 20, 2011. (Photo: Reuters/Stringer)

Citing the broad aversion among U.S. media outlets, politicians, and the American public at large to grapple with the untold amount of death and human destruction suffered by the civilian population of Afghanistan after almost 12 years of U.S.-waged war, The Nation magazine this week has released an in-depth report on the issue in hopes of correcting "this unconscionable oversight."

Written by staff writer Bob Dreyfuss and investigative journalist Nick Turse, the report—titled America’s Afghan Victims—includes a comprehensive look at the various efforts made throughout the course of the war to track, assess, or otherwise tally the number of civilian deaths and casualties caused by military-related violence in Afghanistan.

In addition to offering a thorough history of those efforts, The Nation also produced an interactive database drawn from the report's findings, providing a visual interpretation of some of the casualty statistics.

With a look at the role of independent investigators, the Afghan government, numerous NGOs, the United Nations, and the US/NATO military establishment itself, what the report found was a colossal failure—despite earnest and important work by some and willful disregard for Afghan human life by others—to accurately document the number of civilians killed over the course of the conflict.

[WCGreen]

1. What worries me most about this war(s) is the blowback that will come...

We should all remember this Star Trek quote...

"Revenge is a dish best served cold..."

[KG]

2. they hate ush for are freedumsh!

[KG]

3. and what his been accomplished there since 2009? nothing.

[Hydra]

12. Oh, no...

Various people made a lot of money, lots of people were killed, and we "stayed the course."

Mission Accomplished! And we thought he left office...

[Mnemosyne]

4. K&R nt

[CaliforniaPeggy]

5. A Big K&R!

[sabrina 1]

6. I disagree that the lack of numbers of those we have killed is a 'colossal oversight'. It is

far, far worse than that, it is DELIBERATE. It's hard to claim how 'righteous' you are with the bodies of innocent people piling up under your 'humanitarian bombs'

Remember this from a US General when asked about the number of dead Iraqis:

"We don't do body counts"

No oversight, a deliberate dismissive attitude towards the lives of human beings, confident that they will never be held accountable for the slaughter, now in several countries.

[Supersedeas]

7. more than negligent omission, and more like a conscious policy decision

[sabrina 1]

8. Yes, it definitely is a policy, to hide the number of innocent lives that have been taken

so we in America 'don't have to bother our beautiful minds' with such 'trivia' and it is shameful.

I am glad to see someone is acknowledging the humanity of all those innocent victims of our horrific invasions of their countries.

[woo me with science]

13. ^^^^^This^^^^^

All. In. Our. Name.

[sabrina 1]

14. Yes and we Democrats used to condemn the slaughter of innocents. Look at that little

boy. And he is just one of countless children who have died or been scarred for life, both mentally and physically. And we DARE to claim the moral high ground.

See how little attention this thread has received.

At one time, during the Bush years THIS would at the top of the Rec list.

Souls sold for politics. Not even moved by the sight of a wounded child.

It was all about politics in the end, the feigned concern for innocent lives, or so it seems.

RIP to all the victims of our Oil Wars. We should be ashamed, but that would take a national conscience and a just a few in power who were capable of empathy for other human beings.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Those Afghans are ingrates. They don't understand we're killing them for their own good.

[Comrade Grumpy]

10. This is the world's self-appointed humanitarian protector.

[gopiscrap]

11. yup can't upset the general public with the facts now can we?

[malaise]

15. America never counts war dead in foreign countries

unless they are rebels fighting on their side.
We'll never know how many people died and are still dying in Iraq.