Americans Can’t Remember, Afghans Will Never Forget

[annm4peace]

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2013/10/03/tomgram-ann-jones-americans-can-t-remember-afghans-will-never-forget.html

Tomgram: Ann Jones, Americans Can’t Remember, Afghans Will Never Forget

In Afghanistan, too, as the end of a longer war supposedly draws near, the rate at which civilians are being killed has actually picked up, and the numbers of women and children among the civilian dead have risen dramatically

The Afghan War is officially winding down. American casualties, generally from towns and suburbs you’ve never heard of unless you were born there, are still coming in. Though far fewer American troops are in the field with Afghan forces, devastating “insider attacks” in which a soldier or policeman turns his gun on his American allies, trainers, or mentors still periodically occur. Civilian casualties continue to rise. “Surgically precise” U.S. air and drone strikes still mysteriously kill Afghan civilians. And as U.S. combat troops withdraw, Afghan-on-Afghan fighting is actually increasing, with the U.S.-trained army taking almost Vietnam-level, possibly unsustainable casualties (100 or more dead a week), while the police are similarly hit hard.

Meanwhile, as TomDispatch regular Ann Jones points out, our second longest war has already played Houdini, doing a remarkable disappearing job in "the homeland." Almost 12 years after it began, no one here, it seems, is considering how to assess American “success” on that distant battlefield. But were we to do so, what possible gauge might we use? Here’s a suggestion: how about opium production? In 1979, the year America’s first Afghan war (against the Soviets) began, that country was producing just 250 tons of opium; by the early years of the post-9/11 American occupation of the country, that figure had hit 3,400 tons. Between 2006 and the present, it’s ranged from a 2007 high of 8,200 tons to a low of just under 5,000 tons. Officials of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service now claim that 40,000 tons of illicit opiates have been stockpiled in Afghanistan, mostly to be marketed abroad. As of 2012, it was the world’s leading supplier of opium, with 74% of the global market, a figure that was expected to hit 90% as U.S. combat troops leave (and foreign aid flees). In other words, success in an endless war in that country has meant creating the world’s first true narco-state. It's a record to consider. Not for nothing, it seems, were all those billons of dollars expended, not without accomplishments do we leave (if we are actually leaving)



Read more: http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2013/10/03/tomgram-ann-jones-americans-can-t-remember-afghans-will-never-forget.html#ixzz2guau7V3g

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. K&R I hope for our sakes that there is no such thing as karma.

[ConcernedCanuk]

2. "Afghans Will Never Forget" - damm right they won't.

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As of 2013, tens of thousands of people were killed in the war, mostly militants and ordinary civilians. In addition, over 4,000 ISAF soldiers and civilian contractors as well as over 10,000 Afghan National Security Forces also died.[33]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Afghanistan_(2001%E2%80%93present)
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Iraqis will never forget the slaughter from the 2 Bush guys and all the sanctions.

Iranians will never forget the suffering of the USA endorsed sanctions.

Trillions of dollars have been diverted from the US economy to foment violence around the World, while the USA's own citizens languish in poverty and lack of health care.

USA may be controlling much of the globe, but they ain't making many friends.

And the USA is gonna need some friends soon -

The World is watching this "shutdown" thing,

some with malice I suspect.

CC