UN: Civilian deaths in Afghan war up for 5th straight year

Jeruselem Post ^ | 02/04/2012 08:45 | REUTERS

[Makana]

KABUL - More than 3,000 civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2011, the fifth year in a row the number has risen, the United Nations said on Saturday in a report likely to revive tension between the Afghan government and its Western backers.

Civilian deaths undermine support both in Afghanistan and the United States for the US-led war, and are one of the biggest causes of friction between President Hamid Karzai and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Bombs planted on roads, and increasingly deadly suicide attacks that targeted civilians, killed more people than any other type of attack, according to the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

"The tactics of choice of anti-government elements subjected Afghan civilians to death and injury with increasingly lethal results in 2011," UNAMA said in a statement accompanying the report.

"Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were the single largest killer of Afghan children, women and men in 2011."

[Glenmore]

And the civilian death rate will go through the roof when we leave.

[Glenmore]

And the civilian death rate will go through the roof when we leave.

[Condor51]

More than 3,000 civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan in 2011...

Really? And what pray-tell is a "civilian" when your enemy is a terrorist without a uniform and the whole country is a War Zone?

Is a "civilian" the man -- or boy -- who just put his AK inside his mud hut after emptying his magazine at a US Army convoy? Is that when he becomes a "civilian"?

Or is a "civilian" an unarmed person whose a lookout for the Taliban that's waiting in the hills and mountains to ambush a US Army patrol with RPGs and .50 cal machine guns? Is he a "civilian" because he's unarmed?

Is a "civilian" a person whose a 'farmer' during the day but at night he digs out his AK and joins up with the 'insurgents' and attacks some remote US military camp then slithers back to his mud hut and sleeps until sunrise -- to resume playing 'farmer'? Is he a "civilian"? If so, when did he become one?

This is the same bs we went through in Nam with "civilians" and Charlie. And since we're using the same play-book, we're screwed -- period. It's the failed 'Hearts & Minds' baloney all over again. Except now it's 'H&M' on steroids with the über asinine ROEs we're now using.

[One would think we learned something after that FUBAR mess. But nope, we didn't.]