Beating or beaten by terror

» Looking back at the end of the Afghanistan war

 

Matthew Fraser
Editor-in-Chief

 

[fememper a few years ago seeing an
interview or a news broadcast where
someone stated simply that the War on
Terror would soon be claiming US military
personnel born after the war had begun.
They were not wrong. Unfortunately, this
view neglects the reality of those in the
Middle East where thousands of lives
have been claimed, many of whom were
born only after the first American boots
touched the ground or the first bombs
were detonated. However, it might be
even more tragic to realize that our North
American views, driven almost entirely by
the United States media, long sympathetic
to the war effort, were never meant to view
the casualties on the other side as wrong.
We were not asked to see the children
and families literally bombed to pieces as
tragic. Instead, we were to accept their
deaths as deserved and to ignore as
statistics the civilian casualty.

When Joe Biden began his withdrawal
from Afghanistan the optimists and the
anti-war activists saw it as the end of a
blood-thirsty and dark era. | saw it that way
too. It was the first time in my life where it
felt like someone at the top of the power
structure was choosing to buck the war
instinct and withdraw the hand of death
from another’s land. Certainly, it was not
enough by itself, but it signalled hope and
the beginnings of something that we could
champion. But it quickly began to spiral out
of control.

Suddenly, the fear of the Afghan
masses was broadcasted to the world.
Every day on our TV screens, through
our phones, and across social media, the

c¢

terror that hurtled through the people of
Afghanistan as the Taliban swept back to
power was transmitted to us. The Afghans
in the cities who had adjusted to western
oversight, the women who had a modicum
of freedom and independence returned

to them panicked. And how could they
not? They either remembered the days,
20 years before when the Taliban ruled
their lives, or they had been warned by the
elders around them. Their lives, hopes,
and dreams were to be upended as the
American-led coalition returned home.

As | talked to my politically-minded
friends, | frequently found myself making
the dry and cynical joke that the US
government spent 20 years, billions of
dollars, and far too many lives to replace
the Taliban with the Taliban. That is, only
after the CIA gave funding and training the
organizations that would birth the Taliban.

Not that it's better, there is in fact
accounting for the dollars spent and
the number of lives lost. As published
by BuzzFeed News it consists of $887
billion spent by various arms of the US
government, 47,245 Afghan civilians killed,
24,099 Pakistani civilians killed, 458 aid
workers killed, 74 journalists killed, and
2,312 US military deaths.

| hope you weren't as shocked as me to
find out that the US was bombing Pakistan
in the thousands,

One of the best things to come from
the end of this gruesome campaign is
the scaling back of the drone bombing
offensive. Not because Congress had
acted against the heinous and immoral
strikes that were occurring. Not because
a public uproar like that which met the
Vietnam war forced it. But because the end
of the Afghan war meant that there was

| frequently found myself making the dry and
cynical joke that the US government spent

20 years, billions of dollars, and far too many
lives to replace the Taliban with the Taliban.

 

little to no justification—however flimsy it
was to begin with—to keep bombing from
afar and with such wanton impunity.
Shortly after the election of Donald
Trump, The Atlantic published an article
entitled “Obama's Weak Defense of His
Record on Drone Killings.” Throughout it,
Conor Friedersdorf walks readers through
the heinous record of killings that make up
the drone war record. The record outlined
begins with 41 Pakistani civilians killed at
a funeral by a drone strike. The record
continues with 2009 receiving its
100" CIA drone strike.