The View From Here: Afghanistan War

Showing posts with label Afghanistan War. Show all posts

Friday, May 16, 2014

9-11 Museum Opening Ceremonies Silent on the Hundreds of Thousands Killed by America's "War On Terror"

By Fareed Khan

It was a solemn day in New York City yesterday (May 15, 2014). This day marked the official opening of the 9/11 museum which commemorates the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The museum is the principal institution concerned with exploring the implications of the events of the September 11th terrorist attacks and documenting the impact of those events. But for the majority of American it is seen as the national memorial to the 2,977 people who were victims of 9/11. The museum opening received wide media coverage , as is appropriate for the opening of a memorial for such a tragic event.

But while it was solemn day for those in New York City the opening of the museum should also be marked as a tragic day for the millions of people who were half a world away, had no direct involvement in the attacks of September 11th, and yet are victims of 9/11 just as much as the people who died on that sunny Tuesday morning. I refer to the people of Iraq and Afghanistan who became victims of violence perpetrated by the United States and its allies as it lashed out in response to the events of September 11th.

The tragedy of yesterday's museum opening is manifested in the fact that while the deaths of the 9/11 victims are being remembered in the U.S. by the opening of a memorial that cost over $700 million to build, totally forgotten is the reality of the many hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi and Afghani men, women and children who died as a direct result of America's "war on terror", a war which was justified in the name of those who were killed on 9/11.

These are innocent victims who have no national memorials and are only remembered in the hearts and minds of their family members. Their deaths and life changing injuries are not and will not be an occasion for mass media events, museums or memorials. There will be no heartfelt speeches about them by political leaders. And the public will not see their photograph on a commemorative wall or hear the voices of their family members describing their tragic last moments of life. And there will be few in the United States or other western countries that will remember their faces let alone mourn for them.

It is conservatively estimated that the American-led efforts to combat terrorism has directly resulted in the deaths of over 500,000 people in Iraq alone, created approximately 4.5 million refugees in the countires where the U.S. has launched military actions, and has cost the American government more than $6 trillion. And this cumulative body count does not include those who have died due to the suffering caused by the destruction of civilian infrastructure (i.e. hospitals, water/sewage treatment facilities, power generation plants, etc.).

The solemnity of the New York City event was punctuated by the fact that it was attended by President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. Also in attendance was a who's who of political heavy weights, including former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, current New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, former mayors Michael Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani, and former New York governor George Pataki. In addition to the political celebrities in attendance were many family members of 9/11 victims as well as some of those who survived the collapse of the twin towers.

In his remarks during the opening ceremonies President Obama said that the "sacred place of healing and hope" will ensure that "generations yet unborn will never forget" the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

It is unlikely that what happened on 9/11 will ever forgotten given how the events of that day were seared into the memories of millions of people in the United States and hundreds of millions around the world by the media, by the volumes of academic research that has been devoted to this single act of terrorism over the 12 years since the event, and because of the geopolitical actions undertaken by the U.S. government in the aftermath of the attacks.

Yes, yesterday was a solemn day in New York City, and the September 11th attacks and their victims should be remembered. But we in the West also need to remember the hundreds of thousands if not millions of people who have been killed and maimed (directly and indirectly) because of the so-called ‟war on terror”.

We need to remember the face of Ali Ismail Abbas, a 12 year old Iraqi boy, who lost his limbs as well as his parents and extended family when his family home was ‟accidentally” bombed by U.S. forces in 2004.

We need to remember the scores of people killed in a wedding party (including women and children) in southern Afghanistan in 2002 when the celebration in their village was bombed because military analysts incorrectly thought it was a gathering of Taliban insurgents.

And we need to acknowledge the physical and psychological trauma suffered by hundreds of thousands of families in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries who mourn their dead outside of the media spotlight, without multi-million dollar memorials commemorating their dead, and out of the minds of vast majority of people in the west who don't give a second thought to the innocent victims that have died and suffered, victims who are not memorialized in a museum in New York City. Only if we do that can we legitimately claim the right to our belief that we are a compassionate, caring and civilized society.

NOTE: All links in this article were current and working at the time of posting. If any links no longer work please post a note and the problem will be corrected where possible.

© Fareed Khan. © All rights reserved. All Rights Reserved.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Lament for the Unremembered Dead: Why Are the Lives of 9/11 Victims Valued More Than Those of Others Killed in the “War On Terror”

Updated September 15, 2013 3:07 AM

September 10, 2013 -- I wrote the following on September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington DC, and emailed it to my list of email contacts in the hope that it would generate meaningful discussion. A year later, by the anniversary of the attacks in 2007, my life had been torn apart and 9/11 came to have a totally different meaning for me. It was the date that I spoke at my wife's funeral and laid her to rest. Notwithstanding how the significance of that date has changed for me personally, for the vast majority of people September 11th will always be remembered for the images of planes flying into the World Trade Center. For many of us, we will always remember where we were when the World Trade Center towers came crashing down.

There have been many events and actions that have taken place related to the issue of terrorism since that sunny September morning in 2001, and much has been written about this tragic event and its aftermath. Some of what has taken place include the following: the United States launched its "war on terror" and invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq as a consequence; the threat of terrorism has been used to justify the violation of civil liberties and human rights in the U.S. and many other western democracies; the American government has spied on hundreds of millions of its citizens by monitoring their phone and Internet use using the threat of terrorism as a rationalization; the U.S. has implemented a campaign of attacks by armed aerial drones in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia in pursuit of terrorists despite the fact that thousands of innocent people died as a result; and hundreds of thousands, of innocent men, women and children have been injured and killed as a result of U.S. actions in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere.

While some of the numbers and statistics have changed, the words I wrote in 2006 are just as relevant today as they were when I wrote them. Except now we are aware of the lies that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq. We have seen hundreds of billions of dollars poured into the military campaigns in both Afghanistan and Iraq -- money which could have wiped out the national debts of the most impoverished nations in the world. And we have seen the threat of terrorism used to justify a lot of unjust and illegal actions by governments around the world.

Source: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/03/charts-cost-iraq-war

As you read what I wrote seven years ago, I ask you to question why it seems that the lives of those in western countries seem to have greater value than those of people in places like Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. I ask you to question at what point will the deaths of the 2,977 victims who died on September 11, 2001 finally be avenged. And I ask you to challenge the rhetoric by the leaders of western nations about the sanctity of human life when their actions have led to the death and injury of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of innocent people in far off lands whose daily concerns and desires are no different than those of the average person living in the west.

*********************

Lament For The Unremembered Dead

Why Are the Lives of 9/11 Victims Valued More Than of Those of Others Killed In The ‟War On Terror”

For the rest of our lives most of us will remember where we were on that September 11th morning in 2001 when we learned of the terrorist attacks taking place in the United States. We will remember the images, we will recall our horror, and we will think of the sadness we felt for the innocent lives lost on that day. And every year on the anniversary of that occasion, as the media gives us coverage of the memorial events and replays the images, we will be reminded again and again of what happened in New York City and Washington D.C. on that day.

But what about the innocents in other parts of the world who have have been killed since the 9/11 attacks as a result of the response by the U.S. and other western nations to the terrorist attacks – what about the ‟unremembered” dead?

The people I refer to are the hundreds of thousands innocent men, women and children in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries who have died as a result of the ‟war on terror” -- those who are antiseptically referred to by western politicians and military leaders as “collateral damage”. Those who died days or weeks after they were injured due to attacks by military forces, government security forces, insurgents or terrorists. Those who didn’t have access to medical attention to treat their injuries or who no longer had access to clean water or electricity.

What about these people?

These are innocent victims who will get no memorials. Their deaths and life changing injuries are not and will not be an occasion for special annual media events or poignant documentaries. There will be no commemorative speeches about them by political leaders. We will not see the faces of their family members as backdrops for speeches by politicians. And there will be few in the west that will remember them let alone mourn for them.

It is conservatively estimated that the west's effort to combat terrorists has directly resulted in the deaths of over 60,000 people world-wide (a gross underestimation according to some), created 4.5 million refugees, and cost the United States more money than it would take to pay off the national debts of every poor nation on earth. This cumulative body count does not include those who have died due to the suffering caused by the destruction of civilian infrastructure (i.e. water/sewage treatment facilities, power generation plants, hospitals, etc.).

In Afghanistan conservative estimates for innocent civilian deaths range from 4,500 to over 15,000 in the military campaign to overthrow the Taliban and maintain support for the current Afghan government. The fact that the Taliban were deposed has been a positive thing for Afghans but the fact that the blood of thousands of innocents was spilled in the process should be something that must be remembered no less than we remember the victims of 9/11.

In Iraq the website Iraq Body Count puts the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at between 41,650 and 46,318 since the beginning of the U.S. invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein in 2003. Where are the stirring memorials for them? Where are the emotional speeches? Where are the TV news specials that talk about the plight of the families of these victims?

All of these numbers do not include the injured taken home by their families who died weeks or months later due to their injuries. If these numbers were to be added then the casualty figures would be in the hundreds of thousands.

So why is it that deaths of these innocent people do not register on the collective consciousness of society in the west?

On the surface the answer seems simple enough. Unlike on 9/11, there are rarely cameras present to record the tragic deaths of these people. And when there are cameras around, these images hardly ever make it into the news stories that we tune into on a daily basis. Or the images are not dramatic enough to make an impact on our imagination. After all what images from Afghanistan or Iraq can compete with the drama and the horror of planes crashing into skyscrapers, or of 110 story office towers collapsing.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-checkpoint-killings-american-troops

But the true explanation may be more disturbing than most in the west care to admit. The fact is that most in the west don’t want to know or be reminded of these other victims because to acknowledge and commemorate their plight and suffering would mean taking a long, hard look at ourselves. Conducting this self-examination would make us see our own deep character flaws, admit that there is a racist tinge to public support for the war on terror, and might cause us to realize that western society is not as civilized as we believe it to be.

After all, how could a civilized society not be incensed when government policies or societal attitudes paint a whole culture or a world-wide faith as terrorists. How can a civilized society not empathize with all victims of violence, whatever their ethnicity, nationality, culture or faith? How can a civilized society only acknowledge and commemorate the 2,977 victims of one act of criminal violence while relegating the other 60,000 plus victims to the dark corners or our collective memory?

Yes . . . today is once again September 11th. And yes, we should remember the victims of a horrific and criminal act by a group of zealots. But let us also remember the tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of victims of this so-called ‟war on terror”.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/pictures/image/0,9731,-10304812318,00.html

SOURCE: The Guardian

Let us remember the face of a 12 year old Iraqi boy who lost his limbs as well as his parents and extended family when his family home was ‟accidentally” bombed by U.S. forces in 2004.

Let us remember the scores of people killed in a wedding party in southern Afghanistan in 2002 when the celebration in their village was mis-identified as a gathering of Taliban insurgents and bombed.

And let us try and acknowledge the suffering and anguish of the tens of thousands of families in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries in that region of the world who mourn their dead in anonymity, without the attention of news cameras, without special ceremonies, without the presence of high powered politicians.

If we as a society can do this, then and only then can we rightfully claim the designation of a society that is compassionate, just, and civilized.

NOTE: All links in this article were current and working at the time of posting. If any links no longer work please post a note and the problem will be corrected as soon as possible.

© F. Khan. All rights reserved.