[Peace-discuss] Fwd: "The Cost of US Terrorism in Afghanistan: Incalculable" by Kathy Kelly, VCNV

[C. G. Estabrook]

March 3, 2011
"The Cost of US Terrorism in Afghanistan: Incalculable"
By Kathy Kelly


Recent polls suggest that while a majority of U.S. people disapprove
of the war in Afghanistan, many on grounds of its horrible economic
cost, only 3% took the war into account when voting in the 2010
midterm elections. The issue of the economy weighed heavily on voters,
but the war and its cost, though clear to them and clearly related to
the economy in their thinking, was a far less pressing concern.


U.S. people, if they do read or hear of it, may be shocked at the
apparent unconcern of the crews of two U.S. helicopter gunships, which
attacked and killed nine children on a mountainside in Afghanistan’s
Kunar province, shooting them “one after another” this past Tuesday
March 1st. (“The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a
green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in
a second round they hovered over us and started shooting.” (NYT
3/2/11)).


Four of the boys were seven years old; three were eight, one was nine
and the oldest was twelve. “The children were gathering wood under a
tree in the mountains near a village in the district,” said Noorullah
Noori, a member of the local development council in Manogai district.
“I myself was involved in the burial,” Noori said. “Yesterday we
buried them.” (AP, March 2, 2011) General Petraeus has acknowledged,
and apologized for, the tragedy.


To read the rest go to: http://vcnv.org/incalculable


Kathy Kelly (Kathy at vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative
Nonviolence www.vcnv.org and has worked closely with the Afghan Youth
Peace Volunteers www.livewithoutwars.org


More on the Live Without Wars campaign:
http://vcnv.org/project/live-without-wars