Obama's Afghan Legacy: More Civilian Deaths

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Obama's Afghan Legacy: More Civilian Deaths

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/10/obamas-afghan-legacy-more_n_833915.html



WASHINGTON -- There is no consensus about what good has been achieved in the two-plus years that President Barack Obama has waged war in Afghanistan. But one negative result is indisputable: the war has grown deadlier for Afghan civilians.

Newly released data on civilian casualties compiled by the U.S.-led NATO forces confirm what the United Nations reported on Wednesday: That even as Obama has doubled the number of U.S. troops in the country, the insurgency has only gotten more brutal and life for ordinary Afghans has become more perilous.

Published for the first time on Thursday by Science magazine, data from the military's "CIVCAS" database show a 19 percent increase in the number of civilians killed last year, compared to the previous year.

That's more or less in line with the U.N. data, which showed a 15 percent increase during that same period -- after a 14 percent increase between 2008 and 2009.