veiled4allah: remembering the innocents who have died in Afghanstan

Howard Hansen said:

Total comments: 5

"Is there a moral difference between the U.S. killing Afghan civilians because of something their leaders did and al-Qa'ida killing American civilians because of something their leaders did?" Yes. al-Qa'ida killed innocent American civilians because it didn't like what America was. They killed innocents for no reason. We gave no direct provocation.

The US went into Afghanistan much as a police officer goes in to apprehend a criminal. If fired upon, the police officer will return fire. If an innocent is killed, that's unfortunate, perhaps even irresponsible, but it's not criminal.

Did we bomb indiscriminately? Did we slaughter thousands for sport or in a fit of pique? No. We didn't we dropped precision guided bombs. And nearly 100% of them hit exactly where they were targeted. The only disasters occured when we mistakenly targeted the wrong buildings. We very assiduously killed only the bad guys.

Have we continued our military attacks upon Afghanis? No. Have we used chemical or biological weapons? No. We could have nuked the places where we suspected OBL was hiding. It would have done the job more surely, easily, and cheaply than the tactics we did choose.

We tried very hard not to kill any innocents and we killed very few of them.

Let's look at the aftermath. The country isn't as stable as we'd like, but we're not willing to kill enough people to enforce stability. Unlike the man who has murdered more Muslims than anyone in history: Sadam Hussein.

What about the other side of the equation: how many lives have we saved?

Several hunderd thousand Afghan children have been vaccinated for Measles and other killer diseases. Many hundreds or even thousands of those children would be dead today if not for those vaccines.

Several dozen women were not beaten or killed by Taliban thugs because they let an ankle show from under their burqas. Several hundred are alive now because they have access to heathcare and didn't die in childbirth or from easily-treatable conditions.

Several hundred more men and women are alive because women are allowed to work in hospitals once more. And because the US and other countries have provided supplies and health care workers.

Several hundred soldiers and civilians are alive because they weren't killed in militia skirmishes.

And God knows how many thousands Americans, Europeans, Israelis, or Australians are alive because al-Qa'ida couldn't carry out its NEXT attack. Because they're NOT "just as capable of terrorism as before".

And scores of people, guilty only of having a television, flying a kite, or being seen with a man not in her family, were not brutally, publicly executed in front of a throng in Kabul's soccer stadium.

And thousands upon thousands of girls and women are in the school now. And boys and men are learning from texts that cover more than just the Q'ran, hate, and victimhood.

On balance, I'd guess that more Afghans are alive today than would have been if we hadn't intervened. And life is better for nearly every Afghan. And I'm quite sure that several thousand non-Afghans would have perished in another horrific attack at the hands of al Qa'ida monsters.

Our actions have made Afghanistan and the world a better place than it was a year ago. You should be thanking us, not comparing us with psychotic hate-mongers.

But then I guess that's what Allah SWT wills for the world. I believe he sent OBL as a messenger to wake up the US to the sufferings of Muslims around the world. And once awoken I believe Allah SWT wills us to liberate them. One down, one lined up, a bunch more to go.

Al-Munaqabah said:

Total comments: 996

Once again, I don't have time this evening to respond point-by-point to everything that you have said. I'll just make a few points, God willing.

Perhaps my post was worded poorly. I do not consider the 9/11 attacks and the war on Afghanistan to be completely equivalent. However, I do see that more than 3000 innocent Afghan civilians, who have no control over what their government may have chosen to do, have died, just as more than 3000 innocent American civilians have died.

As to the current situation in Afghanistan, it is not as good as you would like to think. The Northern Alliance are a bunch of raping, looting thugs and are terrorizing the population in the areas they rule as much as, if not more than, the Taliban ever did. Most of the harsh laws that the Taliban enacted are still being enforced.

Finally, there have been accusations made even in such mainstream newsmagazines as Newsweek that American troops looked the other way while their Northern Alliance allies committed atrocities and war crimes.

Looking at the whole thing, I am not sure that the war on Afghanistan has been effective to its stated purposes. The Afghan people are little better off than they were before. And as the Bali terrorist attack shows, al-Qa'ida is apparently just as free to act as before. Moreover, there have been actions taken that America should not be proud of.

This is the point I was trying to make in my original post. I do encourage you to visit my Afghanistan page and read more.

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