Obama, ISAF kill another round of civilians
ISAF Airstrike in Afghanistan Kills at least 9 Civilians
ISAF forces (US and NATO troops) in western Afghanistan are reviewing reports that their precision airstrike killed at least nine civilians, mostly women and children.
ISAF admitted that one of its aircraft dropped a precision-guided bomb in Helmand province’s Nad Ali district.
The two war criminals Obama and McChrytal meet on the same day the Olympics Committee rejected Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic games. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza). [Obama and his First Lady are unaffordable liabilities, as far as the people of Chicago are concerned.]
Officials from the International Security Assistance Force have visited the area to observe the extent of casualties, AFP reported.
The latest airstrike occurred amid “new guidelines” recently issued by General Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and ISAF commander in Afghanistan, to limit civilian casualties.
The General was reported as saying in London on Thursday that the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating and that foreign forces have little time to reverse the momentum.
General McChrystal has asked the White House to send thousands of additional troops to the “AfPak” region by the end of the year, at a time when the US should withdraw from Afghanistan.
“U.S. forces are being increased by 21,000, to 68,000, bringing the coalition total to 110,000. About 9,000 are from Britain, where support for the war is waning. Counterinsurgency theory concerning the time and the ratio of forces required to protect the population indicates that, nationwide, Afghanistan would need hundreds of thousands of coalition troops, perhaps for a decade or more. That is inconceivable.” Washington post said.
War criminal Obama has already sent 21,000 extra US troops to Afghanistan this year. Gen McChrystal had reported earlier that his mission was likely to fail unless he was given even more troops. [Until the next similar report.]
According to “analysts” McChrystal may have asked for up to an additional 40,000 troops to “win” the unwinnable war.
McChrystal must have borrowed the defective calculator that the Soviets used to their ultimate demise.
- Total No of Soviet Troops who fought in Afghanistan over the 9-year period: up to 700,000
- Total number of troops occupying Afghanistan at any one time (1985) : 120,000
- Soviet Troops Killed in Afghanistan: 15,000
- Wounded in action: 54,000
- Troops fell sick: 470,000
[Note: Large number of troops fell ill because of unsanitary conditions and rapid spread of infectious diseases.]
Monetary cost of war: about $100 billion
Other Losses:
- 451 aircraft (includes 333 helicopters)
- 147 tanks
- 1,314 (other fighting and armored vehicles)
- 433 artillery guns and mortars
- 1,138 command vehicles
- 510 engineering vehicles
- 11,369 trucks and petrol tankers
Afghan Casualties and Damage to Afghanistan
- Total number of Afghan civilians killed in the 9-year conflict: at least 1.2 million, possibly as many as 2 million.
War Refugees:
- 5 million Afghans fled to Pakistan and Iran (30 percent of the prewar population of Afghanistan.
- 2 million more people were displaced within the country.
- During the 9-year war, one out of two refugees in the world was an Afghan.
Other casualties
- 1.2 million Afghans disabled (Mujahideen, government troops and civilians)
- 3 million more were maimed or wounded (mostly civilians).
- Afghanistan irrigation systems, vital to its agriculture, were destroyed by aerial bombing and strafing both by the by Soviet or government forces.
- In Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, the population was decimated from 200,000 before the war to about 25,000, by way “months-long campaign of carpet bombing and bulldozing by the Soviets and Afghan communist soldiers in 1987.”
- 25,000 Afghans were killed by land mines during the war. Another 10 million land mines, mostly planted by the Soviet and government forces, were left scattered throughout the countryside to kill and maim even more people.
- Children were the primary victims of the land mines which maimed and disabled 3-4% of the Afghan population.
- In 1985 child mortality rate reached 31%. Some 67% of the survivors were severely malnourished, with malnutrition increasing with age.
Pullout of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. 1988. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev. For licensing details click here.
Iraq, Obama’s War in Afghanistan: The Two Straws that Broke the US Camel’s Back
- The heavily underestimated cost of war in Afghanistan: $228,204,281,888 [and mounting]
- The cost in your community: National Priorities
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