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Those Crazy Brits!

jjohn on 2002-07-21T12:43:40

The BBC is reporting that a survey by the Global Exchange group, based in San Francisco, found that more than 800 civilians were killed by US air strikes during the liberation of Afghanistan. Who can trust a report from a bunch of hippies? Even President Karzai believes that the survey exaggerates the number (he suggests that less than 500 have been killed). Also note that today CNN is carrying its own story about the civilian losses in Afghanistan. You'll note that the number is 13 and that the deaths aren't attributed to the US military. Now that's news I can live with!

Death Is Funny

pudge on 2002-07-23T18:53:53

The funny thing about this is that the military basically thinks that civilian casualty numbers are irrelevant. They have a job to do and do their best to not kill civilians, but any civilians that are accidentally killed by the U.S. military are the responsibility of al Qaeda, to their view.

That's not to say that gross negligence, intentional acts, etc. on behalf of U.S. personnel that result in civilian casualties shouldn't be punished, but accidental civilian casualties are inevitable, unfortunately.