Afghan war kills three children a day: report

[kpete]

Source: Raw Story/AFP

Afghan war kills three children a day: report

By Agence France-Presse
Thursday, January 7th, 2010 -- 8:10 am


afghan child Afghan war kills three children a day: report
KABUL — Children are the biggest victims of the war in Afghanistan, with more than 1,050 people under 18 years old killed last year alone, according to an Afghan human rights watchdog.

Taliban-linked militants caused around 64 percent of all violent child deaths last year, the Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said in a report.

Children were also press-ganged, sexually exploited, deprived of health and education, and illegally detained by all sides in a war that is dragging into its ninth year since the US-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime.

"At least three children were killed in war-related incidents every day in 2009 and many others suffered in diverse but mostly unreported ways," ARM director Ajmal Samadi said.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/2010/01/afghan-war-kills-children-day-report/

[stray cat]

1. how many Afgan children died in 2000 vs 2009?

[Blue Owl]

2. Does your freedom or my freedom

require 3 children to die every day as a result of our voluntary occupation?

I don't fucking think so.

[polly7]

3. One child is too many, no matter who does it.

Let Afghanistan sort itself out. The people are not stupid. If we'd quit propping up, bribing dictators, sending mixed messages, and helping with our very presence to squelch the voices of those who really can rise up and make a difference Afghanistan just may have a chance. What other nation in the world has been invaded and decimated time after time and has had the opportunity to decide it's own fate? Not many that I can think of ........ and we hate them. SA nations come to mind. But I guess that's the point, keep them in a state of upheaval. jmo.

[Goldstein1984]

5. One would think that everything you wrote would be obvious to

any person with enough imagination and courage to ask themselves what they would do if they were on the receiving end of the wars on terror and drugs.

What would we do if an estimated 3 American children were dying every day because an occupying force considered the losses and acceptable consequence to achieve their objective.

I just learned a new term: "bug splat." It's what the people who select targets, plan missions, and evaluate the results call noncombatant casualties. Easy as swatting flies. Easier still, it seems, when the people are brown and non-Christian.

[Igel]

6. What would *you* do,

if the US were occupied and the righteous partisans fighting the occupation, who have awesome respect for life and would never kill civilians, were actually killing two kids a day while the evil nasty hateful occupiers only killed one?

The brown non-Christian people seem to kill more brown non-Christian people than the pasty Christians. Given that the pasty invaders have bigger things that go *boom!*, that's a neat feat.

[Goldstein1984]

7. Alaska Liberals are a bit different

We also stockpile ammunition. I know what I would do, and I think they're going to do it to us.

The non-combatants are not killing anyone. That's why killing them is a crime, and why making excuses for killing them by saying someone else is killing more of them isn't a defense.

I believe we're going to lose in Afghanistan, and I think that's a good think. We need to have the hubris and exceptionalism kicked out of us. We'll be a better people on the other side of the defeat. Unless we invade Venezuela to shake off "the Shadow of Afghanistan."

It's been more than 30 years, but I remember one statement made by a counterinsurgency instructor above all others: "In the end, the insurgents always win."

[DeeOwl]

8. The brown non-Christian?

The brown non-Christian folk, especially the Muslim sort (never mind that there millions of white/blond "native" Muslims throughout the central Asia and parts of Europe), anyways all that Muslim "brown non-Christian" on "brown non-Christian" violence has a long way to go to rival something like, let's say the WWII, a conflict where largely Christian based armies battled other Christian based armies with the casualties both civilian and military ranging from 62 to 80 million? And that is just one, I repeat one Christan-on-Christian conflict.

Now all of this becomes a bit murky if you take into consideration who the source of all these civilian casualty figures and reports in Afghanistan happens to be. Sure, CNN and others report it, but the ultimate source is the one branch of the US Military or the other, and we know what their track record with honesty is, right?

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R

[Canuckistanian]

9. Thom Hartmann said it best

With all the attention paid to the death of Jon Benet Ramsey, could you imagine the violent death of a child happening 3X daily? Because that's what's happening in Afghanistan EVERY DAY.

It's obscene.

[avaistheone1]

11. It is sickening.

[midnight]

10. Let's end this Stupid war.....