Based on corroborated reports from aid agencies, the United Nations, eyewitnesses, TV stations, newspapers and news agencies around the world, Herold estimates that at least 3,767 Afghanistan civilians were killed by U.S. bombs between Oct. 7 and Dec. 10 -- a higher figure than the 3,234 thought to have been killed in New York and Washington on Sept. 11.

We did our part. We were patriotic. We wrapped ourselves in the old red, white and blue and cheered the government on. We didn't even flinch at collateral damage because we knew that the raids on targets like the Kajakai dam power station, Kabul's telephone exchange, the al-Jazeera TV station office, lorries and buses filled with refugees and civilian fuel trucks -- were not mistakes.

After US AC130 gunships strafed the farming village of Chowkar-Karez in October, killing at least 93 civilians, a Pentagon official remarked, the people are dead because we wanted them dead, while Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld commented, cannot deal with that particular village.

Now that we've won the dead-body-count game, let's take the flags down. Let's fold them into small, neat squares and tubes and put them in the back of our closets. Let's do it quick -- before the government uses them as excuses to knock out the civilians of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Laura Santina lives in San Ramon, California.

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