America’s Way Of War: Killing Civilians
SH.A.
From Afghanistan to Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the United States and its allies have been really good at one thing only: Killing civilians in wars without end.
This has been going on since 2001, starting from Afghanistan, stretching to Yemen and then all the way back to Afghanistan, where the United Nations has once again warned that the United States and its allied forces are killing more Afghan civilians than the Taliban and other armed groups do.
This has been largely the case in the first three months of this year. A new quarterly report from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan shows that from January to the end of March.
It’s interesting to note that in response to the report, US forces spokesman in Afghanistan Colonel Dave Butler has said: “We reserve the right of self-defense of our forces. The best way to end the suffering of non-combatants is to end the fighting through an agreed-upon reduction in violence on all sides.”
The thing is, the ongoing violence could be reduced to a great extent if all US and NATO forces actually leave the war-torn country. This would reduce the high number of civilian casualties that the latest UN report shows are mostly being killed in massive airstrikes, drone operations, and brutal night raids.
The concern is that as the 2020 US elections approach, the situation could get worse and further civilian casualties won’t be off the charts. With the Taliban willing to negotiate peace with the central government in Kabul, even if the US is to carry out ever more drone strikes across the war-torn country, it will need better excuses to justify the presence of its drone bases, which are the favorite weapon of choice in this war of repetition.
During all these years, the US has tried everything in its manual of military tactics and still has gone nowhere: From dropping ‘the mother of all bombs,’ the largest non-nuclear munition in that military’s arena, to often time and again any other weaponry. Amid all that failure repetition, civilians are still dying; Afghans and others are being uprooted and displaced and terror outfits are spreading.
The argument is that this endless failure of the US military effort in Afghanistan is where it all began and where it seems never to end. And hard as it might be to believe, even when it comes to the US policy of negotiations with the Taliban, initiated by the Trump administration, it’s seemingly also going nowhere – but where it all began and it seems never to come to a decisive conclusion and result to end the tragedy.
On that note, the UN’s latest report on civilian casualties represents nothing new. In the past, we have read similar reports and warnings issued by the world body, which unsurprisingly failed to end America’s ‘the right war’ and hold anyone to account.
This understanding should do justice to this conclusion: Just like his predecessors, President Trump will also lose the longest war in American history. Which is to say, the next best possible plan is to try to follow through on a withdrawal plan, just as he promised during his elections campaign.
He is likely to have a few problems on his hands. Above all, the Pentagon and the country’s commanders are still hooked on America’s longest war. They exhibit not the slightest urge to stop their murderous campaign.
After all, this represents the only thing the US military knows how to do in Afghanistan. And one thing is guaranteed: If they don’t plan a withdrawal strategy, they have the power and ability to kill even more civilians in that unfortunate West Asian nation.
And with that in mind, almost 18 years later, don’t think that victory is out of the question either. Every defenseless civilian that the US military kills in Afghanistan with its ‘precision’ weaponry is indeed a victory for the War Party in Washington and its terror proxy forces in Afghanistan and elsewhere. It justifies their ‘humanitarian’ occupation and makes sure the war that has cost the US economy billions of dollars will continue apace with no end in sight.