Killing Children in Afghanistan - VIDEO

The estimable Angela Keaton crystallized the war in her last post (below). The war becomes difficult for the establishment to talk about when it is presented as it is by the video of injured Iraqi children. They can’t inject their technocratic policy-wonkery, and even nationalistic themes and Exceptionalist rhetoric is grossly misplaced.

Such is the power of video, so I thought I’d post some others from the Afghan war to the same effect. For context, civilian casualties in Afghanistan have seen a sharp rise in 2011. In a US airstrike in July, 14 civilians were killed, 8 of them children. In May, US soldiers killed a 12 year old Afghan girl in a night raid. In March, nine Afghan boys collecting firewood in eastern Afghanistan were annihilated by US airstrikes. US-supported Afghan militias have recently beat children, hammered nails into the feet of a young boy, and gang raped another 13 year old boy. In February of last year, a US night raid killed a teenage girl and two pregnant women. In September of last year, NATO attack helicopters bombed seven civilians, four of them children. A UN report last year found that almost 350 Afghan children were killed in 2009 alone.

Jason Ditz: US Deaths in Afghanistan: Obama Doubles Entire Bush-Era Total
RAWA: RAWA PHOTO GALLERY
The WE!: PHOTOS FROM AFGHANISTAN