AFGHANISTAN -- 24,000 CIVILIANS KILLED
The death toll of civilians in Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. war continues to mount. Indeed, it may total 24,000 people so far.
According to estimates in February by the British newspaper, the Guardian, “the direct victims of American bombs and missiles” number “between 1,300 and 8,000 deaths.” Figures compiled by University of New Hampshire professor Marc Herold stipulate that between Oct. 7 and May 14, 3,780 civilians were killed by U.S. forces -- at minimum. Every day, of course, brings reports of more deaths, almost entirely civilians.
But these figures do not include “indirect” civilian deaths, which aid agencies believe are considerably higher than those killed by bombs. The Guardian followed up its February report with an exhaustive investigation of indirect casualties, which was published May 20. It stated, “As many as 20,000 Afghans may have lost their lives as an indirect consequence of U.S. intervention.”
The bombing, according to the Guardian, “had three main effects on the humanitarian situation. It caused massive dislocation by prompting hundreds of thousands of Afghans to flee from their homes. It stopped aid supplies to drought victims who depended on emergency relief. It provoked an upsurge in fighting that turned a military stalemate [of three years duration, until the U.S. attacks] into one of chaotic fluidity, leading yet more people to flee.” From these causes -- starvation due to the interruption of relief supplies for some three months, illnesses due to the realities of social disruption stemming from an expanded war, and the massive fleeing of homes and villages to seek safety from the bombings -- correspondent Jonathan Steele, based Herat, Afghanistan, extrapolated the figure of 20,000 civilian deaths.
Averaging the figures from Herold and the earlier Guardian report, it seems likely that some 4,000 civilians died from direct fighting. The addition of indirect deaths indicates that the U.S. has avenged the civilian dead of Sept. 11 eight times over, so far. And judging by the Bush administration’s pronouncements about the war on terrorism, this is only the beginning.
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BEAT BACK THE RIGHT-WING ATTACK
Progressive-thinking people have been waiting for the other shoe to drop since Congress passed that devastating attack on civil liberties known as the U.S.A. Patriot Act weeks after the Sept. 11 disaster. The thud finally reverberated May 30 when the Justice Department eliminated numerous safeguards against wholesale FBI surveillance of domestic political organizations, churches, libraries, internet websites and civilians just going about their business.
It’s all being done in the name of fighting terrorism, as are the new wars President Bush is threatening against several countries not remotely involved with the Pentagon and World Trade Center tragedies. It has been obvious for many months to those who did not misuse the American flag as a blindfold that the Bush administration was exploiting the September events to engage in military expansion abroad and to implement an ultra-right agenda at home. Each move to the right is preceded by terrifying tales of terrorist threats to panic the public into a mood of acceptance, as was done days before Bush “unleashed” the FBI.
The Democratic Party has proven itself useless in the fight against the government’s quick-march to the right on key issues from the environment and economic justice to peace and civil liberties. The opportunist Democrats have migrated so far to the political center in recent years that their dwindling attachment to progressive causes finds expression principally in rhetoric. The only recourse open to millions of Americans who want to stop Bush’s aggressive wars and to keep their liberties is to unite with all who can be united into a mass, militant movement of protest aimed at beating back the right-wing attack.