Posted by Wymark on 10/9/2009, 8:34 pm
82.23.179.222
Starting with Afghanistan.
One of the first things he did after being elected was order 30'000 more troops into the country. He did this despite knowing that it would lead to an increase in the levels of violence there. On the day of the announcement, the U.S. Chief of Staff, Mike Mullen, openly said:
'When we get additional troops here, I think the violence level is going to go up'.
And sure enough, it did go up. At the end of July, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan announced that at least 1000 civilians had been killed in the first half of 2009, more than in any other comparable period of the war.
What's more, the number of bombs being dropped on Afghanistan by the U.S.A.F. had tailed off in the last months of the Bush administration - but then, as was reported by The Navy Times, started to rapidly increase again month on month from the day Obama was elected. So that in April 2009, more bombs were dropped on the country than in *any* other month of the war. The Obama administration have managed to outdo even the Bush administration in terms of the amount of violence they're prepared to use to get their way.
To see the effect this has had on Afghans, you only have to look at the small village of Bala Balouk as an example. There, on the night of May 5th, 97 civilians, the vast majority of whom were children, were killed in a series of U.S. airstrikes. Villagers later interviewed by Human Rights Watch later were adament that no Taliban were present at the time the bombings took place.
It's thought that Obama might be about to escalate the war yet further, the consequences of which for Afghans don't bare thinking about.
Are these the kind of policies befitting of a Nobel Peace Prize winner?
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