Collateral Murder
The Frontier Post, Peshawar, Pakistan, October
24, 2001
World Press Review, January 2002
When President George Bush announced military strikes against
Afghanistan, he promised these would be precise and targeted,
and "collateral damage" would be avoided. Three weeks
into the U.S. blitzing and there are already around 1,000 unconfirmed
civilian casualties, including old persons, women, and children,
who have lost their lives to the deadly arsenal raining down from
the skies. The bomb that reduced the Herat hospital to rubble
and killed 100 patients may have gone astray and violated the
original war script, but this does not _ _ reduce the severity
of the guilt and remorse the United States
Neither can the holes dug into the skulls of two Afghan children,
whose photographs were carried by the press, be explained away
as a case of wayward targeting.
By all accounts, what the United States is committing is collateral
murder; any definition other than this would be an attempt to
paper over a despicable reality. For a war machine that preens
itself on being the most accurate, these inadvertent killings
are a stigma that it may have to carry on its sleeve forever.
For the Pentagon, the revolting killings of innocent people is
a verdict on its inability to restrict the war to specific targets.
This has totally blurred the line separating a "conscientious"
and "righteous" president from a terrorist damned for
trampling humanity.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to craft a suitable
definition for what Bush is undertaking under the garb of reprisals
to answer the infamy committed in the United States. The U.S.-led
campaign has really begun to incite worldwide criticism and protest
for its blind ferocity. This resentment is manifested in the rising
number of rallies against the demolition of civil facilities like
the U.N. demining office, the Red Cross warehouse, hospitals and
clinics, and the casualties resulting therefrom. There may be
some exaggeration about the deaths and injuries caused to civilians,
but the very fact of their being bombarded cannot be allowed to
go unnoticed. After Sept. 11, the United States had perched on
a high moral plane; it seems to be sliding down from it rapid
y.
Very soon, it may find its assaults placed on a par with the
callousness associated with terrorists. The smirk on the face
of the U.S. general while denying the claims of civilian casualties
and the administration's arrogant brushing aside the criticism
of its misdirected adventure are a bad omen for the people of
Afghanistan.
Sensing the colossal rage of the United States, thousands
of Afghan nationals are daily thronging the borders at Chaman
and Torkham. The desperation to get into a country that has already
provided refuge to some 2 million of their compatriots has compelled
many of them to sally forth even in the face of firing in the
air by the border security forces. The incident in Chaman in which
nearly 700 Afghans managed to rush into Pakistan while defying
the warning shots by the border guards is evidence of this grim
reality.
Obviously, the United States cannot inculcate security in
the people of Afghanistan by first dropping bombs and then following
it up by bread. They are fleeing their country to save their lives
and, in the process, putting a further strain on Pakistan's economy
Besides, the spectacle of dead and disabled Afghans is likely
to fuel the protests on the streets of Pakistan.
By presenting these deaths as inevitable, the United States
may well have assuaged its conscience, but it may not be able
to escape the consequences of its ruthless dispensation of killings
of the civilian population. It must lend an ear to the voice of
the people questioning the rationale of its tactics.
Terrorism
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