More Than 1,050 Children Under 18 Died Last Year in (Afghan)War-Related Incidents.

[tekisui]

Source: ABC
Afghan Blast Kills 4 Children, Wounds US Soldiers

An explosion tore through a group of children gathered around foreign soldiers visiting a U.S.-funded road project Wednesday, killing four kids and a policeman and wounding scores, including at least three American troops, officials said.

The Afghan Interior Ministry said in a statement that the blast in Nangrahar province in Afghanistan's east occurred when a passing police vehicle hit a mine. The ministry called it a terrorist act, implying the mine had been planted by insurgents.

Adjman Pardes, chief of the province's health department, said four children and a policeman died. He also told The Associated Press that 81 people, the vast majority of them schoolchildren, were wounded.


(snip)

The deaths of civilians, especially children, are an increasingly sensitive issue in the Afghanistan conflict. On Wednesday, the independent human rights watchdog group Afghanistan Rights Monitor said more than 1,050 children under 18 died last year in war-related incidents.

The group said about two-thirds of the young victims died at the hand of insurgents, including several murdered on suspicion of spying. But it also criticized Afghan and international forces, pointing particularly to the alleged deaths of eight children in an operation involving foreign troops last month in Kunar province.

more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wirestory?id=9488135&page=1

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

[MNDemNY]

2. Obviously they were all taliban child soldiers trained to kill Americans.

[gratuitous]

3. Someone will be along shortly

To advance that very argument in earnest, and try to make a credible case that it's entirely justified, and it's those kids' own darn fault for choosing to live in Afghanistan, and how nobody in Afghanistan or anywhere else should use this as a pretext to hate on America, land of the free and home of the brave.

[MNDemNY]

4. Yes, he will.

As soon as he gets done defending the NY Giants.}(

[NJmaverick]

7. I guess giving the nation over to a band that killed over 600 children

and will not let women get and education is a great idea to you.:eyes:

[tekisui]

9. We killed 300! Does that not matter to you?

[NJmaverick]

11. Again you are deliberately ignoring deaths caused by the Afghan security forces

why is that?

[tekisui]

15. Afghan security forces working with US/NATO.

Those deaths go in our column, too, buddy.

[gratuitous]

22. Goodness! Where did I say that?

How intellectually dishonest of you to stuff words into my post like that.

If I thought it would do any good, I'd alert the mods, but experience has taught me that this sort of flouting of the rules is perfectly all right for some posters, no reason ever proffered.

[NJmaverick]

6. 2/3rds were killed by the Talbian

but go ahead and give those nice people the Country so they can kill more.

[ShortnFiery]

17. Bullshit! We, the God Almighty USA has killed more innocents than all of al Quaeda

Why? We've got all the kick-ass weapons that drives up those blessed BODY COUNTS.

We have NO RIGHT to occupy two ME countries while sending our KILLER DRONES to two other nations in order to conduce SUMMARY EXECUTIONS to "suspected" militants and/or terrorist. No CHARGES, no TRIALS, just USA playing GOD = Judge, Jury and Executioner.

[winyanstaz]

24. yes...it has been murder most horrid of the innocent...

This makes me scream and weep.
What evil we have done. :(

[NJmaverick]

5. The part that should have been bolded- 2/3 killed by the Taliban

including executions on suspicion of spying. Can't believe you want to let the Taliban have Afghanistan.

[tekisui]

8. Who did in the other third? NATO/US.

Further, the children are in a war zone, because we are maintaining the war! We brought the war there. They wouldn't be dying in war if not for our presence.

Oh yeah, check this out, you might learn something:

UNITED NATIONS – Afghanistan's U.N. ambassador is asking the Security Council to lift sanctions on elements of the Taliban that renounce violence and agree to support the government.

Zahir Tanin told the council Wednesday the Afghan government would recommend names to the council's sanctions panel of Taliban members who should no longer be subject to asset freezes, travel bans and arms embargoes in exchange for dropping their opposition.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100106/ap_on_re_us/un_un_afghanistan?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I keep telling you not all Taliban are the same, yet you never hear.

[NJmaverick]

10. You are ignoring the deaths of over 600 children

and those monsters will not let women even get an education (a basic human right in my opinon) how can we surrender those people to these monsters?

PS- I noticed you deliberately ignored the Afghan forces when you talked about the other third. Have you no standards for fair and unbiased?

[tekisui]

14. 'Those people' are requesting that the moderate Taliban

be brought into the political process.

'These monsters' is a convenient label to apply to a variety of entities that are fighting the occupiers. Some of them are, without question, some of the worse on the planet. But, some of them are also people defending their land against foreign armies. It is tragic that any number of children are killed, by any side. We have no way of knowing how many would be killed, if we weren't there making war. It would be a much smaller number, I am sure. Kids are in the line of fire because we target populations with our weapons. They are also in the line of fire from those fighting us.

[ShortnFiery]

18. Plus, "the moderate" Taliban is simply defined as Hamid Karzai's political ALLIES.

Nothing more need apply. We are KILLING the Taliban who are NOT loyal to the Mayor of Kabul.

Doesn't that make you Proud to be an American? :(

[Ignis]

21. AKA, "You forgot Poland!"

:eyes:

[polly7]

28. One evil doesn't cancel out another.

Or, in your world ........... does it???

[StarfarerBill]

13. I can't believe non-Afghans have the hubris to think they can dictate to the Afghan people.

Afghanistan is not ours to give to or take from the Taliban or any other insurgent group; to believe so is imperialist thinking, even wrapped in a pretty ribbon of wanting to save the Afghans from the Taliban.

If the Afghan people truly want us to help them, they'll ask for it; till then, we have no business there.

[Flaneur]

20. It's their fucking country--not yours.

[winyanstaz]

26. sure..the taliban kill kids...so that makes it ok for us to kill kids too.....

We cannot distroy the taliban by killing more kids.
We can distroy them by leaving and letting the people there deal with them.
There is no other way.
Our being there has helped the taliban. We must get out.

[Karmadillo]

12. But at least they had the honor of dying in the right war.

nt

[ShortnFiery]

16. Tragic. Out of Afghanistan NOW!

[slipslidingaway]

19. knr n/t

[winyanstaz]

23. K & R......

Get our sons and daughters OUT of there damn it...
End the wars NOW.
Support our troops and bring them home!

[Vattel]

25. I no longer support this war. I'm sorry I ever did.

[TexasObserver]

27. Unless we oppose the war, we consent to these atrocities.

This is a war with no purpose.