error

People die. Welcome to reality.

Here's the text from the article:


The New York Times, Oct.9, 2001
By PATRICK E. TYLER



Washington, Oct. 9 The United Nations said today that four of its workers were killed and four others were injured near Kabul in the latest round of bombing by the United States against Afghanistan.

At a news conference in Islamabad, the Pakistan capital, a spokeswoman for the United Nations said that the workers were killed when a missile destroyed a building housing Afghan Technical Consultancy, the agency that oversees mine clearing operations in Afghanistan. The building is several miles east of Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.

The spokeswoman said that all eight of the workers were Afghans and were civilians.

It is the first independent report of civilian deaths resulting from the United States-led military action since the attacks began on Sunday.

There was no immediate response from Washington on the deaths and injuries to the United Nations workers.

Afghanistan is one of the most heavily-minded countries in the world and the United Nations began a mine-clearing program there last year.

The United Nations appealed for the protection of civilians in the military strikes against Afghanistan.

The Taliban authorities estimated the death toll from the first day's raids at between 8 and 20. American officials had no comment on possible casualties.

American officials said C-17's flying at 30,000 feet again dropped more than 35,000 food and medicine packets, but some international aid organizations criticized the effort.

"It's an act of marketing, aimed more at public opinion than saving lives," Thomas Gonnet, head of operations in Afghanistan for the French group Action Against Hunger, told Agence France-Presse.

Go fight on the front line in Afghanistan asshole!! Fuck white supremist U.S. and Britain!

More to the point 'innocent' people die. If I remember correctly the primary rationalefor the assult on Afghanistan is the loss of 'innocent' lives in the WTC collapse? How is this retribution? How is this justice?

seeing such photos of the victims of the 9/11 attack.

It is obvious that your sympathies lie more with the foreign civilians than American civilians.

This is war. Civilians have died. More will die if the enemy is not destroyed.

It was I who posted the photo. I originally obtained it from the RAWA site which contains no photo's of US casualties, that not being the subject of the site. Is it on the basis of this you imagine it is obvious that my sympathies lie more with the foreign civilians than American civilians? Why? What have I written to give you an indication of my sympathies are for one nation state over another? Are you angry because I didn't 'balance' this photo of an innocent Afghan casualty of war against an innocent American casualty of terrorism? Do you think I should have tried harder to 'balance' such images in the interest of fairness? What is fair about death? Do you imagine CNN balances their images fairly? Is this the model you think I should aspire to?

In regards to:

"This is war. Civilians have died. More will die if the enemy is not destroyed."

May I be so bold as to ask who exactly are the enemy here? Is it the Afghan people? Is it this poor boy in particular? Granted, civilians have died, but how does this justify yet more civilian deaths? How can one grieve so much for those lost in the collapse of the WTC but not grieve for those lost in the bombing of Afghanistan in equal measure? Do I imagine that God somehow counts an American casualty as more valuable than a non-American casualty? This is absurd! He is brown skinned and speaks a language that is different than ours but underneath pumps the same color of blood as all those who were injured in the attack on the WTC. How is he your enemy anymore than those clerks and janitors who were killed or injured on S11? I still don't understand how people come to so easily rationalize the maiming or death of innocent people 'over there' just because innocent people died 'over here'? If anyone can explain this to me please try.

And finally, as to your prophecy that many more will die if the enemy is not destroyed: do you really imagine that terrorism will stop if bin Laden is killed? (Presuming that he is the mastermind) Do you know (or care) so little about how America is perceived around the world that you can believe there aren't countless others who are inspired by that creature's idiotic hatred? Would you want him to become a martyr? Bin Laden may indeed be an evil man (though certainly NOT the embodiment of ALL the worlds evil as some simple minded duelist might insist) but it is imnportant to note that the source of his evil lays in his willfulness and ignorance. How does that differ from those in the US who call for vengeance regardless of the target - regardless of the ever increasing loss of innocent lives - regardless of how this violence will re-create itself in the hearts of yet more misguided, willful and ignorant people who also somehow believe that violence will successfully correct previous wrongs.

Vengeance is never justice, violence begets violence. Our grief is not an excuse for slaughter.