The Boston Attacks: Dual Dimensions of Life and Death

Life and death are accorded different dimensions in the capitalist world. The devaluation of human beings is an abomination that originates in the alienating perversions of the imperialist system.

Throughout the course of the history of class warfare and imperial domination, everything has been reduced to the interests of the powerful. Life and death, morality and ethics, emotions and solidarity even become hypocritical and nonsensical instruments of power designed solely to reinforce power.

The world was shocked on April 15, when an eight-year-old boy and two adults were killed during an attack in Boston. The media of the most powerful countries denounced it; the whole world was shaken by this new attack in the U.S. The famous singer Pink cried and said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected by the explosions in Boston.” Barack Obama swore that the full weight of justice would be brought down on those responsible. All governments of the world spoke out against this attack in the heart of the United States. Argentina “firmly” condemned the bombings and labeled them “criminal acts.” The governments of China, Russia, Europe, Brazil, Guatemala, Chile and others said the same.

It is right to mourn the death of a young boy and two adults. But it would be more just if those who are now suffering and lamenting the horrors of the attack did the same for the wrongful deaths of hundreds of innocent children in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and other countries attacked by the U.S. and European Union troops. A child, regardless of race, stature, class or education, should possess the same value in every part of the world. No one should kill or torture, harm or abuse a child. The United States is mourning the death of a child now, but not a tear was shed for the Afghan children killed by U.S. soldiers. There was never a gesture of solidarity for the hundreds of children tortured and abused by the U.S. military.

The problem is that the United States and the imperialist powers in Europe kill and massacre entire populations. Close to a thousand civilians have been killed in Iraq, and still no one has established a day of remembrance for these victims of an unjust war. In rich countries there is not a single lamentation for the atrocious crimes in which hundreds of children are killed by the U.S. military. In February of 2013, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child convened in Geneva and denounced the murder of Afghan children within the last five years by U.S. military forces. The Committee stated that child deaths caused by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan doubled between 2010 and 2011. According to them, many children were captured and subjected to torture. “U.S. forces have detained hundreds of children in Afghanistan, holding many of them for over a year with inadequate access to legal assistance, education or rehabilitation services,” stated a U.N. report.* The report also states that children were detained with adults, which goes against international standards. Some were even subjected to torture.

In April of 2012, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan released a report stating that 110 children had been killed and 68 injured in a bombing executed by NATO and U.S. troops. The United States’ “Operation Liberty” to invade Afghanistan began on Oct. 7, 2001. As of today, this war of conquest has taken the lives of over 20,000 civilians — besides all the tortured and murdered children. On April 6, 2013, an aerial attack conducted by NATO killed twelve children and an Afghan woman. The children were between two months and seven years old. On March 30, 2013, NATO launched projectiles from helicopters into the city of Ghazni. Two children were killed.

The killing of children is not only a dramatic event in Afghanistan and Iraq. In August of 2011, the press reported that NATO planes commanded by American pilots killed 85 civilians in a single attack, 33 of whom were children, 32 women and 20 men. “They [NATO] do not differentiate between soldiers, children and old people,” said Abdulkader al-Hawali, a fifth-year medical student at the hospital in nearby Zlitan, where officials say some of the wounded and dead were taken.

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and its nearly 3,000 victims is a symbol the United States employs to accelerate its plans of military invasion on a global scale. The Boston attacks, the perpetrators of which are not yet known,* will be yet another tool to expand the “anti-terrorist” and military plans of Obama’s administration and extend its politics of imperialistic aggression around the world. This attack, as yet unclaimed,* is also useful for deflecting attention away from the real problems of poverty and growing unemployment that affect the American populace.

* Editor’s note: This quotation is taken from an editorial in the Afghanistan Times, not a U.N. report (though a U.N. report on the subject does exist).

** Editor’s note: This article was originally published before the identity of the perpetrators was known.