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Afghan Monitor Says 2010 Worst Year of War
KABUL - This year has been the most violent since the Afghan war began in 2001 and civilian deaths have risen slightly with the increased insecurity, a local rights group said Monday.
This year has been the most violent since the Afghan war began in 2001 and civilian deaths have risen slightly with the increased insecurity, a local rights group said Monday. (AFP/File/Bay Ismoyo) A massive US-led increase in troops has failed to quell the Taliban-led insurgency, Afghanistan Rights Monitor (ARM) said.
"In terms of insecurity, 2010 has been the worst year since the demise of the Taliban regime in late 2001," it said.
"Not only have the number of security incidents increased, the space and depth of the insurgency and counter-insurgency-related violence have maximised dramatically," ARM said.
In late December, US President Barack Obama ordered an extra 30,000 American troops into Afghanistan as part of a new counter-insurgency strategy designed to reverse the Taliban momentum and speed up an end to the nine-year war.
But ARM's mid-year report "Civilian Casualties of Conflict" said Obama's policy of intensifying operations against the Taliban has not disrupted, dismantled or defeated the insurgents.
On the contrary, it says, "the insurgency has become more resilient, multi-structured and deadly".
About 1,074 civilians were killed and more than 1,500 injured in war-related incidents in the first six months of 2010, compared with 1,059 killed in the same period last year, ARM said.
"Up to 1,200 security incidents were recorded in June, the highest number of incidents compared to any month since 2002," it said.
Military commanders had warned that boosted troops numbers would lead to more battles, and subsequently higher death tolls.
But ARM said "little or no justification has been offered as to why a defeated Taliban is gaining strength, popularity and the ability to threaten the future of Afghanistan" nine years after being overthrown.
In a breakdown of parties to blame for civilian deaths, ARM says 61 percent were caused by insurgents, 30 percent by US, NATO and Afghan forces, six percent by "criminals and private security firms", with three percent unknown.
The United States and NATO have more than 140,000 troops in Afghanistan with another 10,000 due in coming weeks as part of the counter-insurgency strategy.
The Taliban's main weapon, bombs known as improvised explosive devices (IEDs), were blamed for most of the Afghan civilian casualties, with suicide attacks the second biggest killer, ARM said.
It said a reduction in air strikes, ordered by the recently sacked commander of foreign forces, US General Stanley McChrystal, had resulted in fewer civilian deaths attributed to US-led forces.
Other country-insurgency measures introduced by McChrystal "were also deemed helpful", the report said.
Last week NATO apologised for the deaths of six civilians in a mistaken air strike and said that six Afghan soldiers died in a "friendly fire" incident.
Rules of engagement that aim to prevent civilian casualties have come under fire from some quarters, however, with the arrival of McChrystal's successor, US General David Petraeus, who took command on July 4.
Many soldiers complain they are hamstrung by the rules, attributing to them a spike in deaths and injuries. ISAF officials say the rules will not change.
So far this year, more than 350 foreign soldiers have died in the Afghan war, around 30 for July alone. The total last year was 520.
ARM's findings echo those of a UN report late last year that found most civilian casualties in 2009 -- up 11 percent in the first 10 months of the year over the same 2008 period -- were caused by Taliban attacks
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10 Comments so far
Show AllNobody talks about austerity when it comes to the ever increasing global killing machine budget.
Its time to get realistic and admit that the Taliban must be allowed to come to a peace negotiation table, for the sake of stabilizing Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Taliban need to have their homeland , and we , the illegal occupying nation need to leave.
How absurd, we invaded a country to chase a group of criminals.
We could have done many things , but War, we are idiots , and revengeful Neanderthals.
And now , we pay trillions of dollars to the super rich elite that played us like the cheap fiddles we are.
Sure, we have them where we want them, never support criminal terrorists again , or else,
And what about Iraq, and WMDs, which is code for Wheres My Diesel ,
We Americans must never let neocon aholes into the White House again.Its way to easy to start a war based on a man made catastrophe, than it is to end one. We Americans keep forgetting what it does to us, our family s, our way of life.War is a game that the super rich play to get more rich, at our expense, they dont care about people, just money and power.They will lie, manipulate and kill to start a war.
They have hijacked our country, put us into massive debt with the FED and Wall street, Bankers, and shut down the constitution with the Patriot Act, while invoking 72 fusion centers and a nation wide spy network of warrant less surveillance rat fink stazi snitches.
And the best part, they gave everyone impunity.
Where the hell were the constitutional protectors, I will tell you where, in line at the banks making deposits in off shore accounts in the Caymans and Switzerland.
In the mean time, we have destroyed to country's and working on invading the third, this is pure insanity, not patriotism or protection of our way of life.
Our super heroes in Washington are destroying the American way of life.
The Republicans cant admit it, and the Democrats wont stop it.
WTF !!!!!
the sooner we get out , the better off we will all be, end the wars, end the patriot act, and protect the constitution of America, thats what protects us from greedy , war mongering, fear mongering , aholes.
I am way more afraid of the United Stazi of America shutting down the constitution then terrorists.
And don't forget, now that corporations have been turned into PERSONS there will be endless amounts of money feeding the MIC and congress members to continue our massive warmongering - all at the expense of the American people, their futures, and a country that was once a noble example to the rest of the world!!!!
Well Not surprisingly the death toll has increased:
When will we never learn?
Continuing the violence is a constant drain on our much needed resources...
And we LIKE to think of our beloved America as a bastion of freedom and democracy when what we've actually done is make a mockery of being upstanding models that others would even consider emulating, except for those that subscribe to killing as a means for what they want...
2010 worst year of war? Worst year of war - isn't that an oxymoron? Is there such a thing as a good year of war? Of course, the MIC would say there is and plenty but the people who are being bombed and massacred? Well, not so much!
'It said a reduction in air strikes, ordered by the recently sacked commander of foreign forces, US General Stanley McChrystal, had resulted in fewer civilian deaths attributed to US-led forces.'
The guy, 'mad-dog' Mattis has been put in McChrystal's place because McChrystal ordered a reduction in air strikes which resulted in fewer civilian death.!!!
Hmm.
Afghans are the most malnourished people on the globe. It is high up in the mountains with a short growing season and hard to grow food. We are there now for 10 years and we have 300 million people in this country totally unconnected to the 20 million Afghans. Where are the care packages? We are not at war with the common civilians. We should have a pen pall program of sending goodies to families. At least they would know somebody cares.
I received a care package after WW2 when I was in Germany as a German child from the Marshall Plan. I to this day remember what was in the package: a piece of chocolate and some pencils. The big discussion in my class: should we eat the candy in one session or just a piece at a time.
Old saying that love comes thru the stomach. We should by now have a program of delivery of food for starters.
I saw on Rachel Maddow show that we are building huge cement walls up in Kandahar at the checkpoints-- altering the entire cityscape and it looks like Palestine-- the natives must be furious.
We will go. Obama has marked a deadline for 1012 and I hope he is serious and I think everybody has seen that the surge in Helmand province was a failure. As the US soldiers left, civilians who had cooperated with the US were decapitated.
We have tried and we had to try before pulling out-- now e have to pull out-- we should still send food packages: raisins, lentil, chocolate in the winter, almonds -- and pencils.
I don't give a fuck just what the Afghan Moniter says...
We are killing and killing, and killing, and killing, again
and again, and again.......................................
A million plus in Iraq, will be that way in Afghan/Pak before
the genocide is over.
We committed genocide in the ninties too.
and in the eighties also
and in the seventies.
and in the sixties.
and in the fifties.,
and in the forties
and before...
we are a monster.,,,but our days are numbered.
I am glad that most nations are more civilized than us
or they would have destroyed us but they know the real
culprits are not us but the scum inside the beltway, so
they are just waiting for them to peter out. they will.
we are almost done, I doubt a decade more, and we will all
be the peasants we are supposed to be..
We suck, our nation sucks, the citiizens suck the envirnment
sucks, the media sucks, entertainment sucks, music sucks
our culture sucks, our politicians suck, state legislatures
suck, courts suck , judges suck, lawyers suck, doctors suck
health care sucks , the dead soil sucks, the Gulf sucks
the Oceans suck , Eurpeans suck, capitolism sucks , socialism
sucks, wall street sucks, journalism sucks, television sucks
, employment system sucks, schools suck,
Animals are great, hope some survive, but americans suck and
will kill their own children, mother, father, somebody eleses
father, mother, child, dog, horse, cow, pig,
pollute anything and everything, we all suck...............
Aaah, the 3rd shift/insomnia crowd, of which I am a charter member, our only flaw is that we're so, so reticent to just 'spit it out'...
I agree Baboon, the US is a rogue nation, we export war, exploitation and despair. And it's all wrapped up in a pretty package topped with a religious bow, god bless us every one!
We are an evil empire, we feed endlessly on the rights, resources and human dignity of others, and yes, the recent health care experience proves that we are not at all inhibited from consuming even 'our own.'
Yes, the whole thing sucks, our culture is based on exploitation, killing and greed
The only hope I can see is that most tenuous thread of decency that burns within those few like you who seek the truth and don't turn away when they find it.
I know it's hard to believe, many days I struggle with this myself, but the radical historian Howard Zinn always leads me back to the tenuous but unbreakable thread of deency that remains buried within so many such as yourself.
We need to find ways to bring those threads of decency together and weave them into a fabric that will protect the afflicted.
Don't lose hope. There so much work ahead....
a bad year for war is a good year for truth.