A Royal Marine near Forward Operational Base Folad,
Afghanistan.
Is there really any point in continuing to kill people in that
country?
In Afghanistan,
NATO Now Committing Bald-Faced 'Murder' (Der Spiegel,
Germany)
"This is
no game. Truth be told, it is murder. Because a senseless war can be called
nothing but murder. ... A few years ago, it was said that Germans should again
become accustomed to war. It was said that this was the global responsibility
of an economically strong and politically sovereign nation. At least in this
respect we can say: mission accomplished! We got used to war again. The
senseless deaths of ten children don’t bother us anymore. Now we know the
meaning of global responsibility. Thanks for the lesson."
This weekend in
Afghanistan, NATO again killed children. What madness: The date for the
withdrawal of ISAF forces has been set - but until
then, the killing goes on. For no reason - merely out of a sense of duty. And
the Germans are participating.
On Saturday, in northeastern Afghanistan's Kunar Province: American and Afghan troops battled their
enemies. After several hours, as
reported by The New York Times,
the Americans called in air support.The
house of the opposing commander was to be destroyed. When it was all over, the
Taliban are dead. And according to the provincial government, ten children also
lose their lives. Five women were also said to be injured. This is the reality
of the war in Afghanistan - a war in which the Bundeswehr
is participating. A war that is completely nonsensical. Because by the end of
2014 it should all be over. The foreign troops will pack up their things and withdraw
- the way a circus packs up and moves on when a performance is over. But this
is no game. Truth be told, it is murder. Because a senseless war can be called
nothing but murder.
There was a similar attack in February. On that occasion,
five children, four women and a man were killed. Afghan President HamidKarzai subsequently forbade
his own security forces from calling in NATO air support. Bombs from the air
bring an indiscriminate death. And ISAF had already
determined that it would no longer target residential buildings.
But apparently, that is no concern of the Americans. ISAF troops, among them Germans, are waging this war based
on a meaningless routine. It is no longer about a goal - about victory or defeat,
or about anything at all. It is just a matter of killing time until the troops
pull out. One day, at midnight, the fight will simply end. This is surreal. Only the dead who fall victim to this madness are real.
That is why this war
cannot be won
Expressing outrage over this has nothing to do with naïve
pacifism. Very few people have the wherewithal to be pacifists. It is hard to
imagine morals stronger than those held by a true pacifist. Most people cannot
tolerate the complete absence of violence. They believe in violence and find
ways of soothing their guilty consciences. The worse the violence, the better must
be the reason.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
How good must the reasons be to justify killing ten
children? Perhaps there are such grounds. Perhaps there is someone who thinks
he can make that judgment. But in this case, we know there are no such reasons.
Who seriously believes that if one Taliban commander more or
less is killed, it will make a difference for the future of Afghanistan? In
this case, the individuals targeted by the Americans were called Ali Kahn and GulRaouf. They allegedly
organized attacks in the country’s mountainous northeast. According to
everything we are able to read, these men are now dead. And now? Will the Kunar region now be more peaceful? Others will take the
place of the dead, as it was in Afghanistan's past. That is why this war cannot
be won. That is why a date for the withdrawal of Western occupation forces has
been set.
Every death is one
too many
Everything is geared toward the withdrawal. ISAF troops are already trying to figure out how to get
their stuff home. Not so easy with such poor infrastructure. If the withdrawal
is to be accomplished on schedule, until the end of 2014, one container must to
leave the country every seven minutes. The transit countries of Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan will make a fortune allowing ISAF
troops to retreat by land and through the air. Pakistan opens and closes its border
to Western military materiel depending on its mood - and according to how many
Pakistanis have just fallen victim to America's drone war.
On the subject of German participation in the war, former Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder recently said in
an interview with Spiegel: “The
decision was the correct one at the time.” But “whether the entire deployment
of more than ten years was correct can only be assessed later, perhaps even
many decades later.” So far, this was Schröder's most
critical statement on the war in Afghanistan. But it wasn’t enough. Schröder would have done himself and the SPD a favor by expressing what in any case, everyone
already understands: This war is lost, it is senseless, and everyone already
knows it.
Each additional day of fighting is one day too many. Every
death is one death too many, and it weighs on our collective conscience. We have
made ourselves into accomplices to a crime. A few years ago, it was said that
Germans should again become accustomed to war. It was said that this was the global
responsibility of an economically strong and politically sovereign nation. At
least in this respect we can say: mission accomplished! We got used to war
again. The senseless deaths of ten children don’t bother us anymore. Now we
know the meaning of global responsibility. Thanks for the lesson.
