Another ‘One-Tenth of a Newtown’ in Afghanistan

Another ‘One-Tenth of a Newtown’ in Afghanistan

Another ‘One-Tenth of a Newtown’ in Afghanistan

Two more children have been added to the deadly toll of civilian casualties.

Facebook
Twitter
Email
Flipboard
Pocket


An Afghan boy passes an American soldier in 2010. (Reuters/Bob Strong.)

Two more children dead in Afghanistan, thanks to an American airstrike. The war is winding down, but try telling that to the families of the children blown to pieces by mistake. Unless you’ve been reading news accounts closely, you probably missed the story:

Two boys out collecting firewood with their donkeys were killed by weapons fired from a NATO helicopter, Afghan and American military officials announced Saturday. … The victims, Toor Jan, 11, and Andul Wodood, 12, were brothers and had been walking behind their donkeys in the Shahed-e-Hasas district of Oruzgan Province when the helicopter fired on them, according to Afghan officials in the district. The two donkeys were killed as well.

Said a local official: “There wasn’t any engagement with the Taliban, it was just a mistake that they have killed the two boys at an area where they thought they detected a Taliban radio signal.”

According to the latest report from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan’s unit for the protection of civilians, published in February, more than 2,700 civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2012, a slight reduction from the record 3,131 killed in 2011. What UNAMA calls “pro-government forces”—i.e., the US-led coalition and Afghanistan’s own security forces – killed 316 of those, compared to the UN’s count of 517 dead in 2011. However, there is plenty of reason to suspect that the United Nations is undercounting civilian casualties, despite often valiant efforts to keep track of the dead.

The two children, of course, will go into the 2013 file. That file will be a lot thicker than it ought to be, because President Obama listened to the generals and decided not to withdraw troops at a faster pace. Most of 66,000 American troops in Afghanistan will stay for the so-called “fighting season” this year, and 32,000 will remain in 2014.

The US military’s own research shows that the majority of civilian casualties in Afghanistan are caused by the Special Forces, who do a lot of the combat and who carry out the dreaded night raids into villages in search of insurgents.

That’s why President Karzai is trying, against great resistance from the United States, to force a halt to night raids, actions by Special Forces, and airstrikes. As the Times reported last week:

The Afghan government barred elite American forces from operating in a strategic province adjoining Kabul on Sunday, citing complaints that Afghans working for American Special Operations forces had tortured and killed villagers in the area.

But, under Afghanistan government pressure, and thanks to a blanket order by the American command to restrict airstrikes, the sort of attack that killed the children just wasn’t supposed to happen.

But it still counts as one-tenth of the Newtown, Connecticut, toll.

Even as the United States slowly ramps down in Afghanistan, it’s ramping up in the Middle East. Robert Dreyfuss writes about the new admission that the CIA is training Syrian fighters in Jordan.

Can we count on you?

In the coming election, the fate of our democracy and fundamental civil rights are on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision across all levels of government if he should win.

We’ve already seen events that fill us with both dread and cautious optimism—throughout it all, The Nation has been a bulwark against misinformation and an advocate for bold, principled perspectives. Our dedicated writers have sat down with Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders for interviews, unpacked the shallow right-wing populist appeals of J.D. Vance, and debated the pathway for a Democratic victory in November.

Stories like these and the one you just read are vital at this critical juncture in our country’s history. Now more than ever, we need clear-eyed and deeply reported independent journalism to make sense of the headlines and sort fact from fiction. Donate today and join our 160-year legacy of speaking truth to power and uplifting the voices of grassroots advocates.

Throughout 2024 and what is likely the defining election of our lifetimes, we need your support to continue publishing the insightful journalism you rely on.

Thank you,
The Editors of The Nation

Ad Policy
x