A year ago tomorrow, the U.S. commenced its bombing campaign in Afghanistan. This is a good time to reflect on this campaign. Has it been effective to its stated aim of reducing or ending terrorism? Has it at least improved the lives of the people of Afghanistan? Or didn't it actually accomplish anything more than death and destruction for Afghans? We should also think about the way the campaign was conducted. More Afghan civilians died because of it than Americans died in the WTC. Is there a moral difference between the U.S. killing Afghan civilians because of something their leaders did and al-Qa'ida killing American civilians because of something their leaders did? There are also allegations of a number of war crimes committed by the Northern Alliance while America looked the other way. Should we as Americans really be so proud of what we and our allies have done to the helpless people of Afghanistan, especially since, according to the government, al-Qa'ida is just as capable of terrorism as before? Was all that death and destruction to no purpose?
Further links about Afghanistan are available at my Afghanistan Page