US Military Escalates Its Dirty War In Afghanistan

...a secret area of a prison facility at Bagram Air Base is being used to subject detainees to beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological stress, as part of an interrogation regime

By James Cogan

Afghan protesters shout anti-American slogans during a protest in Kandahar, south of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, April 12, 2010. International troops opened fire on a bus carrying Afghan civilians early Monday, killing four people and setting off anti-American protests in a southern city that is a hotbed of the Taliban insurgency. (Photo: AP)

The New York Times reported Sunday that American special forces units are operating in and around the Afghan city of Kandahar, assassinating or capturing alleged leaders and militants of the Taliban resistance ahead of the major US-NATO offensive scheduled for June.

Suggestive of the sinister and murderous character of such operations, the Times noted that the “opening salvos of the offensive are being carried out in the shadows”. It reported that “elite” units had been “picking up or picking off insurgent leaders” for the past several weeks.

A “senior American military officer” boasted that “large numbers of [the] insurgent leadership based in and around Kandahar have been captured or killed”, but that it was “still a contested battle space.”

The Times reported that “more than a dozen military and civilian officials directly involved in the Kandahar offensive” had agreed to speak about the special forces’ activities because it would help “scare off insurgents” before the bulk of American troops move into Taliban-held areas of the city. This claim is either patent nonsense or deliberate deception. The Taliban do not require an article in the American media to inform them that “large numbers” of their fighters are being killed or captured.

The real motive for the article is to introduce the audience of the New York Times and broader public opinion to the reality of the dirty war that the Obama administration is presiding over in Afghanistan. Assassination, or alternatively, detention without trial under the harshest conditions, is the preferred method of the US military to suppress resistance to the neo-colonial agenda of US imperialism.

The commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, is applying the same tactics that he used during the Bush administration’s “surge” in Iraq in 2007 and 2008, when he was serving under General David Petraeus as the head of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

A teacher from the area, Mohammed Sharif, told the New York Times, “People are fed up with these night raids and wilful operations. They are raiding houses during the night, killing innocent people. Sometimes they kill opposition people as well, but usually they are harming ordinary and innocent people.”

WSWS.org, Apr. 29, 2010

JSOC units are drawn from the Army’s Delta Force and Ranger battalions, the Navy Seals and specialized units of the Air Force. Regular Marine and Army battalions were used during the battles for Karbala, Najaf and Fallujah in 2004. The Iraq “surge” was marked by the use of JSOC, aided by local collaborators, to kill or capture suspected insurgents ahead of the deployment of larger formations into resistance-held areas.

The secretive mass killings and stories of brutal imprisonment generated terror in urban centers like Ramadi, Baqubah, Mosul, Basra, Amarah and the suburbs of Baghdad. It is credited by sections of the US military as playing an equally decisive role in subduing resistance as the parallel policy of bribing insurgents to cease fighting in exchange for amnesty and cash.

The coming assault on Kandahar is the centerpiece of the Obama administration’s plan to shatter the Afghan insurgency and finally impose American control over the country. Kandahar and the neighboring province of Helmand have been the main support bases of the Taliban movement since the mid-1990s. Large swathes of both provinces have remained under its influence since the US invasion in 2001. The majority of the predominantly ethnic Pashtun population is virulently opposed to the presence of foreign forces. They do not accept the authority of the thoroughly corrupt Afghan puppet government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

The bulk of the 30,000 additional troops ordered to Afghanistan this year by Obama are being deployed to either Kandahar or Helmand. Reflecting the views of the White House and the Pentagon, the New York Times referred to the coming operation as a “make-or-break offensive”.

Thousands of troops have been positioned to cut off the possibility of reinforcements to or escape from Kandahar. According to the Times’ sources, American units have established “several dozen” positions guarding the roads in and out of the city. A 12,000-strong US, British and Canadian force and 10,000 Afghan government soldiers will eventually be involved in the assault.

Before they are moved in, however, JSOC’s death squads have been unleashed.

An unnamed US official told the Los Angeles Times last month that a number of JSOC’s units had been transferred to Afghanistan under the Obama administration because “hunting season is over in Iraq”. According to the LA Times’ sources, JSOC currently has 5,800 personnel at its disposal in Afghanistan—double the number used during the Iraq surge. They are conducting assassination or snatch missions across the country, assisted by Special Forces units from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and some NATO states.

There is no concrete figure as to how many alleged insurgents have been assassinated in Kandahar or elsewhere in Afghanistan. JSOC operations take place under the cloak of total censorship. Nor does the US military provide any details as to the criteria used by JSOC to determine its choice of victims. It is not known, for example, if the killings are limited to armed combatants, or extends to anyone who provides political or material support to the insurgency. There is also no accountability as to how the identity of targets is verified, given that most operations take place in the dead of night, or over how many civilians are being killed or injured in the process.

There is a litany of recorded cases in which non-combatants were massacred during operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In the most recent example, raids last Friday and Saturday night on alleged Taliban in the eastern Afghan province of Logar resulted in the death of the local school principal and religious leader. The killing provoked an eruption of anger. A crowd of Afghans surrounded and set ablaze a column of 12 trucks carrying fuel to a nearby NATO base.

A teacher from the area, Mohammed Sharif, told the New York Times, “People are fed up with these night raids and wilful operations. They are raiding houses during the night, killing innocent people. Sometimes they kill opposition people as well, but usually they are harming ordinary and innocent people.”

Alleged insurgents who are detained disappear into various US and Afghan government-run prisons. The British Broadcasting Corporation reported on April 15 that a secret area of a prison facility at Bagram Air Base is being used to subject detainees to beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological stress, as part of an interrogation regime. The allegations were based on interviews or signed statements by nine former inmates. The charges were predictably denied by the US military.

JSOC also works closely with the CIA’s “Special Activities Division”, which is particularly involved in the assassination of alleged Afghan and Pakistani Taliban militants in the remote tribal agencies of North West Pakistan. The main method currently used for the killings is Hellfire missiles launched from remotely flown Predator drones. According to the Pakistani military, such strikes have slaughtered well over 700 innocent civilians since Obama took office, fueling support in the border region for the anti-occupation insurgency. On the weekend, two more Predator attacks were carried out in the agency of North Waziristan, killing at least 12 people.

An article in Monday’s New York Times detailed the latest innovations of the CIA to carry out its remote-controlled assassinations. They include the coffee-cup-sized, 35-pound “Small Smart Weapon” that can be “fitted with four different guidance systems that allow it to home in on targets as small as a single person in complete darkness” and a “small thermobaric warhead, which detonates a cocktail of explosive powders on impact to create a pressure wave that kills humans but leaves structures relatively intact”.

Justified in 2001 as a “war on terrorism”, the Afghan occupation has always been an attempt to impose US dominance over a strategic area of Central Asia. The only change in the conduct of the war from the Bush to the Obama White Houses has been the escalation of the number of troops involved and the greater use of a secretive apparatus of assassins to carry out the murderous repression of the Afghan people.

Ginger's Rounded Up and Killed - M.I.A. Film Pulled From YouTube

M.I.A, Born Free from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Israel, Palestine Sign Historic Treaty While US Declares War On Iran

Jerusalem -  Feb 23 - 2011                                

A historic Peace Treaty was signed at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem today which recognizes the Palestinian state and sets new borders to include the controversial International Guardianship provisions which gives equal rights to all nationalities in the contested holy city of Jerusalem. At the same time that the world leaders seated themselves for the ceremony the United States warship USS Cole fired 17 RIM-3 missiles, part of our sea based global missile defense system on two outbound Iranian missiles that were headed on a trajectory towards Jerusalem. As most global leaders were present for this historic signing, security in the region was already at it's tightest and following the signing the leaders met for an impromptu summit where President Obama informed them of the current situation with Iran. The Prime Minsters of Israel and Palestine met for their first time alone and declared joint security cooperation during this "sensitive new beginning" issuing a joint order declaring a ban on all celebrations and travel throughout both countries until the situation settles.  Meanwhile, the US Senate met jointly in an emergency session called by the Speaker of the House, Senator Newt Gingrich and a declaration of war against Iran was quickly passed with only 2 members voting nay. Currently both the Israeli and Palestinian parliaments are in their own emergency sessions and sources say each body is hotly debating what their positions are and what actions they will take with both promising to fully cooperate with each other under the new security frame work of the treaty. 

Global condemnation has been overwhelming towards Iran for its attempt to destroy the historic treaty signing along with all the world dignitaries who came to observe and the UN has called for an immediate resolution as soon as it can gather again in New York due to so many U.N. delegates attending the signing ceremonies in Jerusalem.  Although the US has gone it alone, US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, said "we (America) have acted so only because of the extreme urgency that the situation demanded" and with an obvious sigh continued "lets all understand, it was the Iranians who fired first, they launched two big missiles pointed straight at the biggest gathering of world leaders ever who came in the name of peace and we had the ability to stop them".  Ambassador Rice also stated that the Security Council had already met since all six delegates had been attending the signing ceremony and that the full assembly vote will take place as soon as everyone returns to New York. Meanwhile, governments around the world called emergency sessions to discuss and debate official responses to Iran's actions with many already committing troops and support for America's newest war. 

A press conference held at U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forward headquarters at Camp As Sayliyah in Qatar just hours after the incident and was overcrowded with press flowing into the hallways as CENTCOM Commander Admiral William Fallon gave the briefing himself via satellite from its HQ in Tampa, Florida.  Looking stressed and with his staff around him explained that at 1230 hours Iranian time mutiple launches where detected from a Republican Guard base in Qom Province just south of Tehran. He continued to detail how "airborne assets" tracked the missile trajectories and "calculated target and time to impact" stating he, at all times, was in real time communications with the "go" order decision makers but did not elaborate on who nor did he take questions after. Once the order was giving the USS Cole, best know for the attack on it by al-Qaeda in 2000 in which 17 sailors lost their lives, fired 17 of the newest class of anti-missile missile the RIM-3 in an attempt to knock out the two Iranian Shahab-3 targeting Jerusalem and at 1259 hrs and 1302 hrs respectfully, successfully intercepted and destroyed them over the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. No other information was given as to the other 15 missiles or to any other strikes which might have occurred. As of this time no reports are being allowed from reporters embedded with the American forces and the only reports, other than the briefing, have come from radio broadcast emanating from Iran which described multiple large explosions in and around government installations and facilities across Iran.

An historic day it was.

“In My Father’s House They Gathered All the Women into One Room”

Visiting the victims of Afghanistan's revenge rapes.

BY ANNA BADKHEN

Kampirak, Amir Jan, and Qulyambo

O, daughters of Balkh! Your unrivaled beauty is the stuff of legends. One of your own has enchanted Alexander the Great with her pulchritude. And the violence you have suffered under the breast-shaped clay roofs of your Baktrian homes is unspeakable, unspoken, and unpunished.

In late 2001, after helping kick the Taliban out of northern Afghanistan, two militias allied with the United States raped and plundered their way through your villages. One was the ethnic Uzbek militia of General Abdul Rashid Dostum; the other was made up of ethnic Hazara followers of the warlord Muhammad Mohaqiq. They killed your men, slaughtered and stole your livestock, pillaged your homes, and violated your sisters, mothers, and daughters. Some of them took the time to explain why they had picked you as their victims: Because you are Pashtun, the ethnic group that made up most of the Taliban.

They were victorious; they were in the mood to avenge the rapes and massacres Taliban fighters had committed against their own wives, sisters and daughters. In the evolution of warfare, swords replaced javelins and guns replaced swords -- but rape has remained just as efficient a weapon as it was when the Achaemenid armies lay waste to this land, 2,600 years ago. You, daughters of Balkh, were the latest targets of the latest revenge cycle that swept through your country. Wheat in your fields has shuddered at the anguished screams of generations of your foremothers.

Eight years ago, four Pashtun women told me of their assailants, three fighters from Dostum's militia, Junbish-e-Milli-e-Islami who took turn raping them all night. Technically, only one of them, Nazu, was a woman; her daughters were 10, 12, and 14. The youngest, Bibi Amina, was playing with the fringe of the giant red scarf that covered her head and smiling. It seemed to me that she had not understood what had been done to her. The local police chief, an ethnic Tajik, said at the time that his men were too few, and too poorly armed, to hunt down the assailants. He was waiting for reinforcements.

Years passed; the militiamen who ravaged the Pashtun villages in Balkh remained free. Their warlords became government ministers; their lower-ranking commanders received posts in parliament; many of the rank-and-file fighters joined the police and thearmy. Their victims stopped talking about the crimes they had endured: Rape in Afghanistan carries a mark of unutterable disgrace.

Under their breast-shaped roofs - perfect hemispheres that face the limpid clay sky and virescent fields of wheat -- the women grieve quietly, and alone. They knead their tragedies into the golden sundials of nan they bake in smoky tandoor ovens in their impoverished courtyards; they weave them into the oil-black braids of their young, beautiful daughters; they immure them into the crumbling house walls they mend with fistfuls of straw and mud. When they do speak of those terrible days after the Taliban fell, they equivocate.

"They touched all the women and the teenage girls," one widow, whose cheeks and forehead are dotted with deep-blue marks of tribal tattoos, whispers to me in the corner of her dust-choked house.

"They dragged us out of our homes. Women and girls are ashamed to talk about what happened then," says another, modestly covering her face with a tatteredscarf the color of ripe wheat.

In my father's house they gathered all the women in one room," says the third. Her amber eyes bore through me. "We will never forgive these crimes. Until we die."

Last month, the Afghan government confirmed that it had signed into force the National Stability and Reconciliation Law -- and what a tragic misnomer that is. The law effectively amnesties all warlords and fighters responsible for large-scale human rights abuses in the preceding decades. "Their view," says Farid Mutaqi, a human rights worker in Mazar-e-Sharif, "is that justice should be the victim of peace."

You know what this means, daughters of Balkh: This means your rapes will never be punished. Perhaps, in some future iteration of war that has been rolling back and forth through these green wheat fields almost incessantly for millennia, they will be avenged -- through some other rapes, of some other women.

Jailed Whistleblower: US Lawmakers Held Offshore UBS Accounts

Garbage Economics - Predictions from the Street

This is an attempt to apply what I call hidden dynamics (or indicators) to economic forecasting based off observations of the amount and frequency of garbage placed out for collection combined with all the service related traffic on my street. 

Simply put by my observations of the daily cycles and routines on my block I have turned these events into economic indicators which tell me:

• The Poor are receiving their tax returns or rebates in many cases and are quickly converting them into big flat screen TV's, computers and the accessories that go along with them. In Bush speak they are being "Patriotic". This "consumer confidence" will quickly dissipate as the checks stop coming and the costs to fuel their new found gadgets combined with ever increasing power costs will be all they can manage just to keep the air on.
• The Middle is currently the shit in the proverbial shit sandwich and is being squashed into something new. I'm hoping for consciousness! Their garbage shows this in it's frugality and after separation of recyclables there is little left. They are streamlining, repairing instead of replacing and done with less and have no doubt lived in the constraints of their paychecks more then at anytime this century. As this class applies the 3 R's, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, oldies but goodies, they will continue on as they have in regards to this economy with timid economic confidence as they see their jobs given to others or just disappear. But this year they'll take a vacation and they have earned it.
• Then there are those who 'deserve it' which brings me to The Top. It's been difficult for them in these trying times justifying their luxuries so they have been concentrating on their needs and investing into their living spaces. The contractors and crews fill the street daily hauling and installing the latest upgrades available as delivery trucks one after another unload the latest spoils and supplies ordered off the internet. This will be a good year for The Top as was last year and the year before. Their garbage has grown bigger over the last several years even though now more is recycled and taken away by others. Watching all this play out in front of my eyes reminds me of and is proof that the neoconservative agenda of Reaganomics consisting of voodoo economics and trickle down theory are alive and well today. 

So let me get to predicting here: 

• The Poor are Poor and the #'s seem to be growing! As the recession drags on and states cut off more services this epidemic will become more evident even though the fed's are adopting new poverty guidelines which will increase current numbers. But after 40+ years of "Happy Accounting/Reporting" the poverty figure chosen for the new guidelines are unrealistic and once officially published will be circumvented by the states due to the lack of ability to pay for any more or increased entitlements. After a long, hot and expensive (gas $4?) summer come the holidays and a wave of reports showing lines of people needing food and services that will start an "impromptu" social media marketing pitch by retailers who will donate to whatever cause on your behalf when you purchase their enlightened brand of thinking. This is not necessarily a bad thing especially if our politicians don't much care to take on these issues.
• The Middle will continue to keep their heads down, work harder and when all is said and done get payed less for it. Their garbage will become less as they watch everything from their weight to receipts and maybe even read their benefit plan explanations and with what little money they have left going towards a well deserved family vacation. So expect a summertime bump if you live in a tourist spot or summer play area and outside of that they will continue their practice of frugality and the 3 R's while hoping they keep their jobs. I should say more on the Middle since everyone puts such high hopes on them for everyone's sake. As the economy and the war muddle along it will be this class that advocates most for new fiscal policy reforms addressing the connection between the costs of foreign occupations/wars verses domestic concerns on spending.
• The Top has already begun to openly spend again with catered house parties (catering and party rental trucks galore) to show off their newest and freshest whatever from whomever (it all has names) and to plan for the upcoming summer social season now that the dust has settled and a new order revealed. But mostly I think that they think it's OK to relax. They has made it through till now and they still have a view. The rest of the neighborhood not trying to lynch them and they know it. As long as they are not flaunting, no ones faulting: everyone wishes the life for themselves.

 Summary: Garbage will continue to decrease in volume in the bottom two tiers of the block while increasing for the top. Delivery service's will increase their overall market, driving a small increase in e-commerce from all levels, however, small local merchants will feel a decrease in sales due to it. Look for a slow recovery with luxury goods and services leading the way followed by media content providers who are increasingly hooking users into a virtual world of expensive data plans and soon to come virtual goods.

One Month of the Obama Killing Machine in Afghanistan: Data and a Lesson for the UNAMA and its Groupies

Sadly, ‘groupies’ like the western media, peace groups and even the World Socialist Web Site (wsws) uncritically go about citing spurious UNAMA figures, for example endlessly mentioning that Afghan civilian deaths caused by “coalition forces” have declined

by Marc W. Herold

Let the numbers tell the story. The following presents a detailed summary and analysis of Afghan civilians killed directly - so-called impact deaths - by U.S/NATO forces in Afghanistan during a single month, February 2010. The Obama killing machine left 80-86 dead Afghan and Pashtun civilians. By contrast, the number in February 2009 was 50. The intent here is to set the record straight as regards Afghans killed by the U.S/NATO, and in so doing challenge the UNAMA to move beyond its “faith-based” counting. Regrettably, data put out by the UNAMA gets widely cited less for its validity (which cannot be fact-checked given the organization’s refusal to publish disaggregated data) and more because of a vague public yearning to believe (have faith in) in the U.N’s alleged impartiality and credibility. As I have repeatedly demonstrated, the UNAMA data barely captures one-half of the Afghan civilians killed by U.S/NATO direct actions and by so doing serves Obama and the Pentagon in their news management effort.⁽¹⁾

In a cemetery marked by green and white flags in Helmand's provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of Marjah, men buried one Marjah resident who died of his injuries suffered in what his brother said was coalition bombing three days ago. "I buried him here, because I couldn't take him back to my village," the brother, Sayed Wali, a thin man in a faded blue tunic (from http://www1.cw56.com/news/articles/world/BO136048/ ).

Veteran reporter, Kathy Gannon, with a record of independent reporting on Afghanistan going back to October 2001, noted that the Taliban fighting foreign forces in Marja are villagers.⁽²⁾ She also provided rare details on victims of foreign forces there: Musa Jan’s home was hit by an aircraft around February 16th killing five occupants inside including children; Sayed Lal was outside in a field with a friend when he was shot by foreign soldiers. Assadullah, 22, was riding his motorcycle when the Americans fired at him shattering his arm; Abdul Hamid, 12, was in front of his home when raiding foreign forces arrived,

…they were running and shooting. I tried to get back in my house, but they shot me in the leg, and there were more bullets, and they shot me again in the belly. Near me some other people fell into a canal. They called a plane and they bombarded.⁽³⁾

Last night (27 February), foreign soldiers killed three people, including two children, in Alasai district of Kapisa province. Mohammad Ashraf, a tribal elder of Kotki area of Alasai district, giving details of the incident, told AIP that last night at around 2200 local time, French soldiers descended from their helicopter in an area far from Waldikhel village of Kotki area.and and laid an ambush. When people of the area learned about the arrival of these forces, they started fleeing from their village when the French forces opened fire at them." The tribal elder added: "As a result of the firing, three people have been martyred, one of whom was nine-year-old Joma Gul, son of Gholam Rasul, another was 10-year-old Aghar Khan, son of Morad Mohammad, and the third one was Faqir Mohammad, a young man."

A man who identified himself as Hamidullah said he had been in the home as some 20 people gathered to celebrate the birth of a son when a group of men he described as "U.S. Special Forces" surrounded the compound. Saying he witnessed one man's death, Hamidullah said, "Daoud was coming out of the house to ask what was going on. And then they shot him." Then they killed a second man, Hamidullah said. The rest of the group were forced out into the yard, made to kneel and had their hands bound behind their back, he said, breaking off crying without giving any further details. A deputy provincial council member in Gardez, Shahyesta Jan Ahadi, said news of the operation has inflamed the local community that blames Americans. "Last night, the Americans conducted an operation in a house and killed five innocent people, including three women. The people are so angry," he said.

Occupied Afghanistan, March 5, 2010. An Afghan horse cart approaches a U.S. occupation force Stryker armored personnel carrier near Shah-Wali-Kot, Kandahar (photo by John Moore, Getty Images athttp://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/97456605/Getty-Images-News )


Rare photo of an injured victim of U.S/NATO forces., shot during U.S. offensive near Marjah, February 14, 2010 (Photo by AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito at http://topics.philly.com/photo/09Opdbv6joaZZ )


LASHKARGAH, Feb 17, 2010: An eight-year-old girl weeps while laying head on her knees as foreign soldiers handed over the bodies of her family members killed during the ongoing operation Moshtarak in southern Helmand province. The girl, resident of Marja district, lost her 10 family members in a NATO missile strike (Source: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2010/02/17/bodies-of-12-civilians-killed-by-nato-handed-over-to-families.html)

The following Table details the 80-86 Afghan civilians killed by direct U.S/NATO actions along several dimensions. The numbers represent a low-count insofar as they do not include many Pashtun civilians killed in the Pakistani border regions by U.S drone strikes. The Table demonstrates that close to three-quarters of all civilian deaths resulted from air strikes (including the rocket strike in Marja on February 14th). U.S/NATO occupation forces killed civilians in the provinces of Uruzgan, Helmand, Kunduz, Kandahar, Paktia, Kapisa, Farah and in Miranshah (drone strike in Pakistan). The average number of civilians killed in an air strike was ten, whereas in a ground attack it was 2.4. But ground attacks are more deadly for foreign occupation forces. Some 46% of civilian casualties were accounted for by two deadly air strikes – the HiMars rocket strike upon a home in Marjah on February 14th and that by U.S. Special Forces in Dai Kundi, Uruzgan on February 22nd. A Marjah resident noted,

Always when they storm a village the foreign troops never care about civilian casualties at all. And at the end of the day they report the deaths of women and children as the deaths of Taliban.⁽⁴⁾

Table Afghan and Pashtun Civilians killed by U.S/NATO Occupation Forces during February 2010

Day	Location	Number killed	Victim demographics				Cause of death
			Female	male	children	undet	Air strike	ground	combined	undet
Feb 5	Kunduz	1			1			1
Feb 12/13	Paktia	5	3	2				5
Feb 14	Farah	2				2				2
Feb 14	Helmand	12	5	5	2		12
Feb 14	Helmand	3 (-15)		3				3
Feb 15	Kandahar	5		5			5
Feb 15	Helmand	1		1				1
Feb 17	Helmand	5				5	5
Feb 16-24	Helmand	3	1	2				3
Feb 18	Kunduz	7		7			7
Feb 20	Helmand	1		1				1
Feb 22	Kapisa	3		1	2			3
Feb 22	Uruzgan	27-33	4		1	22-28	27
Feb 24	Pakistan	5				5	5
Totals	All areas	80-86	13	27	6	34-40	61	17		2

And what is reported in the mainstream western press? For the first two months of 2010, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission’s Fareed Hamidi trumpeted a dip in civilian deaths, announcing for all those willing to listen that 71 civilians had died at the hand of Afghan and foreign forces.⁽⁵⁾ The UN naturally parroted this gross under-count. In fact, as I reported, foreign forces alone killed 150-156 Afghan civilians during the first two months of 2010.⁽⁶⁾ In other words, the AIHRC only counts one in two Afghan civilians killed by foreign forces. Another font of propaganda, the Soros-bankrolled Open Society Institute, reassured its readers that protecting civilians and protecting troops in Afghanistan was part of the “new” counterinsurgency-style offensive.⁽⁷⁾

In 2008, the UNAMA captured about 70% of Afghans killed by foreign forces, but in 2009 the figure was under 40%, justifiably earning UNAMA’s performance as being faith-based (or ideologically-inspired) counting. Sadly, ‘groupies’ like the western media, peace groups and even the World Socialist Web Site (wsws) uncritically go about citing spurious UNAMA figures, for example endlessly mentioning that Afghan civilian deaths caused by “coalition forces” have declined: naturally they have since the UNAMA missed only 30% of such deaths in 2008, but 60% in 2009.

As I have argued and documented, in fact a trade-off exists between protecting foreign occupation forces and Afghan civilians.⁽⁸⁾ Such trade-off is best captured by the ratio of Afghan civilians killed per dead foreign occupation soldier. This ratio was 4.97 in 2007, 3.19 for 2008, 1.94 for 2009, and for Jan-Feb 2010 it was 1.48.⁽⁹⁾ In effect, the Obama regimen involved trading off US/NATO soldier deaths for fewer Afghan civilian ones in order to placate critical NATO members.⁽¹⁰⁾

Conclusion

Air strikes still kill the majority of Afghan civilians. The absolute number of Afghan civilians killed by foreign occupation forces is not declining.⁽¹¹⁾ The mainstream western media with few exceptions and organizations like UNAMA and the AIHRC de facto serve the Obama news management effort by severely under-reporting Afghan civilians killed by foreign forces.