To:
From: John McAuliff <jmcauliff@igc.org>
Subject: Things look a little different from other countries


As I watch the news shows and read the NY Times, the deja vu factor escalates.  Certainly there is a major difference between the motive of US military intervention in Indochina and in Afghanistan, but our political leadership class seems as ignorant of history and culture now as they were in 1945 and 1956.

Several points appear not to have been taken seriously:

1)  The most common reaction in a civilian population to bombardment is to blame the bomber and to rally to the regime, despite any previous disagreements.  (This seems even to be the case in the sermons by the Mullahs at the funerals of Northern Alliance people killed accidentally by US bombing.)

2)  Hatred and distrust between ethnic, linguistic and tribal groups is trumped by their shared hatred of any foreign invader.

3)  Changing sides with the inducement of bribes may not be so unusual if the dispute is a domestic power struggle.  Taking money from a country which is invading by air or land is treason to the nation.

4)  It is one thing to give military support to an ethnic minority which is a large majority in its own space (e.g. Kosovo); quite different to support ethnic minorities which seek to defeat the majority in a commonly claimed nation space. 

5)  Within a faith, partisans can rationalize using religious holidays for fighting (e.g. George Washington crossing the Delaware to ruin the Brit's Christmas).  But outsiders who do the same confirm their disrespect for the faith and lack of moral virtue and therefore lose the propaganda battle with other believers. 

The crucial wrong turn increasingly looks like the Administration's decision to make bin Laden and the Taliban moral equivilants and one in the same as strategic targets, compounded by insisting on a unilateralist approach to coalition building and military action. 

Frustration over the limited success of the air war seems to lead to either insisting it is doing as expected with unavoidable "collateral damage" among civilians, the John McCain prescription of massive US ground troops,or a wider war with Iraq, especially if some linkage can be found or created with the higher grade anthrax.  Iraq is a deserving target for smarter international sanctions but expanding the battleground will further put at risk Pakistan, Indonesia and other countries with significant Muslim populations.

My despair comes from not seeing a face-saving and politically credible path to de-escalate rather than escalate the conflict.  In the lead editorial on Saturday, "The War Has Just Begun", the NY Times concluded "No early victory should be expected."  Any day now I expect to read or hear that US credibility is at stake if it stops the bombing, even for Ramadan. 

If you want to get some international perspective, scan through www.newspaperlinks.com or go directly to www.frontierpost.pk for a Pakistani perspective.

Thanks to the Dallas Peace Center for the AFP compilation of civilian deaths as published in the Jordan Times.  

John


The Jordan Times has published the following list of US attacks
on civilian sites and numbers of civilian deaths "where there is
some evidence from witnesses or non-Taleban sources to support
claims that non-military targets have beenhit by US bombs."

http://www.jordantimes.com/Fri/news/news3.htm

The Jordan Times
October 26, 2001

List of incidents where US bombs have struck non-military targets

ISLAMABAD (AFP)  The UN reported Thursday that nine Afghan
civilians had been killed when a US warplane dropped a cluster bomb
on their village on October 22.

Taleban officials said over 1,000 civilians have died since US
airstrikes began on October 7. Only a handful have been confirmed
independently.

Following is a list of incidents where there is some evidence from
witnesses or non-Taleban sources to support claims that non-military
targets have been hit by US bombs:

October 23

VILLAGE BOMBING: At least 52 civilians killed in the bombing of
Chakoor Kariz village, near Kandahar, according to Taleban
officials. The Arabic news station Al Jazeera put the death toll at
over 90 and broadcast film of victims of the attack in hospital in
Kandahar. The Taleban claims the village was mistaken for a training
camp, as others have been.

October 22

VILLAGE BOMBING: Nine people died in the village of Shakar Qala near
Herat after US warplanes dropped a cluster bomb on it, the UN said.
Eight died instantly and a ninth was killed after picking up one of
the bombs, according to a UN demining team which visited the village
after the attack.

October 22

HOSPITAL BOMBINGS: A US bomb struck a military hospital in a
military compound in Herat, western Afghanistan, according to the
UN. The US acknowledged a bomb went astray over the city and landed
near an old people's home. The Taleban says a 100-bed civilian
hospital in the city was destroyed by bombing, as well as the
military clinic.

October 21

REFUGEE CONVOY: At least 20 civilians, including nine children,
killed when the tractor and trailer on which they were fleeing US
attacks on the southern town of Tirin Kot was bombed, according to
survivors of the attack now hospitalised in Pakistan. The Taleban
reported two similar incidents near Kandahar and Jalalabad, both on
October 17.

October 21

KABUL: A stray US bomb lands on the neighbourhood of Parod Gajaded
in the Khair Khana district of northeastern Kabul, killing ten
people, nine of them from the same extended family, witnesses told
an AFP reporter who visited the scene shortly after the bombing.

October 18

KABUL: Five members of the same family are killed when six houses
are destroyed by US bombs in the Kalae Zaman Khan area of Kabul,
witnesses and relatives told AFP at the scene. An eight year old
girl was killed in the eastern suburb of Macroyan. Other residential
areas were struck the same day but casualties could not be
confirmed.

October 16

RED CROSS WAREHOUSES: US bombs hit warehouses of the International
Committee of the Red Cross in Kabul, destroying supplies and
injuring at least one worker. The compound had a large red cross on
the roof. After a Red Cross protest, the US admitted dropping a
1,000 pound bomb close to the warehouse, saying Taleban vehicles
were in the area. A World Food Programme warehouse in Kabul has also
been damaged in raids.

October 13

KABUL AIRPORT: a US bomb missed a target at Kabul airport and struck
a nearby village, killing at least four people, according to
witnesses. The Pentagon confirmed the bomb had gone off course due
to technical error.

October 11

VILLAGE BOMBING: At least 160 people reported killed in Kadam, a
mountain village near Jalalabad. An AFP reporter who visited the
remote village saw dozens of collapsed houses, one unexploded bomb
and more than 18 fresh graves. But the numbers of dead could not be
confirmed. The US said it had attacked caves in the area which were
packed with ammunition.

October 11

KABUL: Residents of a village near Kabul airport said a 12-year-old
girl died when a bomb landed near her house, causing it to collapse.

October 9

KABUL: Office of a UN-backed demining agency in Kabul is bombed,
killing four security guards. US expressed regret following UN
protest.

October 7-25

UTILITIES: Since the start of the campaign US attacks have targeted
power plants, telecommunications facilities and broadcasting
infrastructure. Power in Kabul has been intermittently cut. Kandahar
has been without power or water since the start of the second week
of bombing. Kabul's telephone exchange has been badly damaged and
the Taliban's Radio Shariat has been forced off air.