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According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, America's ruthless, twenty year war in Afghanistan killed approximately 212,191 people, 45,000 or more of them civilians. In other words, our retribution for 9/11 was to commit at LEAST fifteen 9/11's against the people of Afghanistan.
Yet this number pales in comparison to the estimated ONE MILLION CHILDREN at risk of dying from acute malnutrition over the course of this winter, which can be directly attributed to the genocidal actions of the Biden administration.
I was and remain utterly convinced that our withdrawal from Afghanistan after two decades of war was the right decision, however disastrously the process itself was handled (including the slaughter of an entire civilian family on our way out the door, most of them children, which the Pentagon did its damnedest to try and ignore.)
Since then, however, whatever noble intentions our demented President professed to have upon withdrawing from the conflict have proven to be completely farcical, as the United States seized (stole) billions of dollars from the Afghan central bank, grinding their economy to a full and utter standstill. This atrocious cruelty compounds the already horrific conditions of drought, famine, and hunger that's being wrought upon the people of Afghanistan due to climate change, creating a nightmarish intersection between American imperialism and our nation's disproportionately high contributions to rising global temperatures. A broad spectrum of international organizations have sounded the alarm that this confluence of cruelties has "pushed nearly 10 million Afghans to the brink of starvation."
On Friday, the Biden administration reinforced its commitment to the mass murder of innocents by magnanimously agreeing to "split" the assets it has stolen from the Afghan people, "between the families of 9/11 victims and unspecified efforts 'for the benefit of the Afghan people," according to reporting by The Intercept. As the article points out, this places Biden "on track to cause more death and destruction in Afghanistan than was caused by the 20 years of war that he ended."
I cannot possibly overstate how viciously evil this is. At this point I am beyond sick of the neverending crocodile tears we continue to shed over an attack against us that took place TWO DECADES ago, using it to justify whatever global atrocities we feel inclined to commit. The parents of the babies we are starving to death in retaliation for 9/11 were NOT EVEN CONCEIVED at the time of the attacks.
Heartbreaking reporting from The Guardian describes mothers being forced into selling their young daughters, and then eventually their own kidneys, in a desperate attempt to keep their families alive through the winter. One woman forced to sell her internal organs was quoted as saying "I couldn't breathe properly, so the doctors took me down from the hospital bed, but I returned. I told them 'I am happy with my own death, but I can't tolerate seeing my children hungry and ill'."
What is being done to these people is abhorrent beyond words, and yet it's scarcely even being recognized among most Americans, perhaps because we're too preoccupied with finding new wars to wage under the absurd pretense of protecting human rights.
So why don't we stop pretending that America's multi-headed hydra of forever wars represents anything faintly resembling a humanitarian motivation to bring peace and democracy to the world, and instead recognize it for what it truly is: an imperialist bloodlust for dominance and control, no matter the cost in innocent human lives.
Aaron Dunbar
Lowell