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The War To Promote Terror
Robert Koehler 10/1/2008
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The "necessary war" in Afghanistan, which both presidential candidates support -- the one, you know, that's really about terrorists and Osama and all -- raises as many troubling questions about who we are as the other war we're fighting and losing.

Consider the details of this war. The aggregate civilian death toll, at the hands of the United States and NATO -- likely around 3,000, according to economics professor Marc Herold of the University of New Hampshire -- is a start. But Herold's about-to-be-released report on the bombing campaign in Afghanistan, "The Matrix of Death," is a disturbing analysis not only of the collateral damage churned up by our terrorist-hunt in this broken nation, but of the attitude and rationality that are driving it. The report is subtitled: "The (Under)Valuation of an Afghan Life."

This is a report on the flawed premise from which ultimate failure flows -- the flawed premise that keeps hell active and guarantees an endless supply of enemies. And the more of these "enemies," and their children, that we kill, the less safe we are, and we know this, so we lie about the numbers of dead. Most of all we lie about what we are, in fact, doing, which is fighting an irrational war, most accurately called the war to promote terror. We will not win it unless
we revert to the morality of Ancient Rome: "create a wasteland and call it peace." But that's not winning, either.

What it is, indeed, is racism, especially the use of what is called close air support: In order to protect the lives of American and NATO (mostly white) troops, we do much of our fighting from the air, with 500- and 2,000-pound bombs, lacerating a (non-white) Afghan population we don't even have to face.

Herold quotes John MacLachlen Gray in the U.K. Globe and Mail: ". . . the slaughter of innocent people, as a statistical eventuality is not an accident but a priority -- in which Afghan civilian casualties are substituted for American military casualties." Herold adds: "What I am saying is that when the 'other' is non-white, the scale of violence used by the U.S. government to achieve its stated objectives at minimum cost knows no limits."

This is a description of U.S. policy stripped of the pretense in which it is usually cloaked. Not only are the numbers of dead downplayed significantly in official military statements and the sympathetic (mainstream) media, but those civilian dead who are acknowledged are instantly rendered "regrettable, but not our fault" by the circular, all-purpose justification that they were not deliberately targeted.

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NATO and Afghanistan
By Paresh Nath - The National Herald, India * Posted 2/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
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NATO and Afghanistan
© Copyright 2008  Paresh Nath - All Rights Reserved.

Posted By: George Plyler  on Wednesday, October 01, 2008

I think I will write every senator and ask for a simple answer to 'What has caused the shortages in this country and exactly why are we in Afghanistan?'.

Posted By: ml johnstone  on Thursday, October 02, 2008

Thank you for this article.

I have been hearing similar reports from NGOs working there.

Posted By: geoff  on Thursday, October 02, 2008

Not surprising, given that only recently have British & Canadian casualties as a result of combat operations in Afghanistan exceeded those resulting from American "friendly fire" incidents. If Americans have so little concern for their erstwhile allies, it's not surprising  they're not worried about the "natives."

I think the end effect is something known as "blowback."

And the Globe & Mail bills itself as "Canada's National Paper"

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