"Suddenly, there were
large planes above us. Then they bombed the house …They bombed and fired from 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. All of my relatives
were killed in this bombing -- my cousins, my uncles, nieces, nephews, two
of my daughters and my son"
Afghan taxi driver Hajj Gul Ahmed,
August 2008
“
We left our houses and came to this camp to escape from the aerial bombings.
My house was destroyed, and all our possessions were buried … now
I have nothing to eat, nothing to feed my children with”
Afghan
woman, Marghar camp, Kandahar province, November 2006
US/NATO bombing has killed hundreds – maybe thousands – of civilians since the start of 2006. Indeed, according to the UN mission in Afghanistan, more Afghan civilians died at the hands of US/NATO forces in the first six months of 2007 than were killed by the Taliban.
Moreover, the use of air power - and the human carnage it causes - is central to the occupation of Afghanistan. As one senior NATO official explained: “[W]ithout air, we’d need hundreds of thousands of troops.”
In May 2007 the upper house of the Afghan Parliament passed a motion calling for a military cease-fire and a date to be set for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
Meanwhile, in an Oct/Nov 2008 poll, 68% of the British public said that all British troops should be withdrawn from Afghanistan within 12 months.
We need to stop the bombing and bring the troops home.
Obama is wrong on Afghanistan: a letter to The Guardian, 1 April 2009, signed by Iain Banks, Bruce Kent, Robert Newman, John Pilger, Michael Rosen, Mark Steel, Susannah York, John McDonnell MPSee What you can do and More info
