Bloody “Progress”

U.S. General David Petraeus claims to have made “enormous progress” over the last months in the Hindu Kush. What does the commander of the international troop contingent in Afghanistan mean by that? The fact that more than 2,400 civilians were killed in 2010, an increase of 20 percent over the prior year and a new record since the start of the war? According to the depressing statistics published by the Afghanistan Rights Organization, there were also 3,270 civilians wounded. According to research carried out by the independent Internet service icasualties.org, more than 10,000 people in Afghanistan were killed in attacks and military skirmishes. 2010 was the deadliest year for the International Security Assistance Force. 711 soldiers, almost 500 of them from the United States, were killed or wounded. In 2008 the number was only about 300.

Although the troop surge ordered by President Barack Obama has raised the number of foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan to 150,000, the lives of the Afghan people — and the war that is being fought for them — have been not been made safer, as the raw data shows. In spite of that, the United States, NATO and the German federal government cannot agree on a cease-fire date and a rapid withdrawal of troops from the country. All indications are that there will be a further escalation of hostilities — and even more civilian victims.