Disgusting
They died while collecting firewood. Nine children between the ages of seven and nine who were collecting firewood on a hilltop that a NATO commander had designated as a target for attack by warplanes. It was a tragic coincidence that even the most hardened warriors hesitate to call “collateral damage.” The camouflage term they’re using for this is “incident.”
It wasn’t until last week that an Afghan investigation resulted in an accusation that NATO had killed at least 65 civilians in mid-February operations, among them 40 children. And of the more than 2,400 civilians killed in the previous year, hundreds of them died at the hands of the NATO-led “protection force.”
Still, regret for their actions was apparently near at hand. The Western war party assumed “full responsibility for the tragedy” resulting from this latest “incident.” Remorse? It was more like ritual. As usual, there were promises that the “incident” would be investigated. Like President Hamid Karzai’s complaints of “daily civilian deaths” caused by NATO personnel? The Austrian writer Peter Handke once wrote, “It’s only the power that allows one to make a ritual of violence that enables one to also rationalize that violence.” In saying that, the author expressed his disgust for that power. A disgust now justified by these nine dead children.
It wasn’t until last week that an Afghan investigation resulted in an accusation that NATO had killed at least 65 civilians in mid-February operations, among them 40 children. And of the more than 2,400 civilians killed in the previous year, hundreds of them died at the hands of the NATO-led “protection force.”
Still, regret for their actions was apparently near at hand. The Western war party assumed “full responsibility for the tragedy” resulting from this latest “incident.” Remorse? It was more like ritual. As usual, there were promises that the “incident” would be investigated. Like President Hamid Karzai’s complaints of “daily civilian deaths” caused by NATO personnel? The Austrian writer Peter Handke once wrote, “It’s only the power that allows one to make a ritual of violence that enables one to also rationalize that violence.” In saying that, the author expressed his disgust for that power. A disgust now justified by these nine dead children.
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