Re: [Marxism] Reuters: U.S. strikes killed 140 villagers: Afghan probe

[John <johnedmundson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 2009-05-16 at 20:39 +0000, sabocat59@xxxxxxx wrote:
> Killakai wrote:
> 
> Something about the way this was phrased was bothersome to me.
>  Highlighting the number of children seems appropriate, but
>  highlighting the number of adult males with the word 'only' in front
>  of it suggests their deaths were much less meaningful, and that by
>  virtue of them being adult males, their status as civilians is
>  questionable.
> 
> -------------------------------------
> 
> I think this "only" comes from the idea that adult males would largely
>  be responsible for military action. So if ONLY a small number of adult
>  men were killed, that signifies the bombing raid as an attack on
>  civilians.  
]
Yes. By saying that there were "only" 22 adult male killed in  a total
death toll of 140 the statement is directly challenging US assertions
that the strike was a successful blow against "Taliban insurgents" or
"terrorists".

Later in the article available at
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL68362.htm we find (emphasis
mine):


"The U.S. military says it *believes* the death toll was lower than the
official Afghan figure, but says it cannot provide a figure of its own
because the dead were quickly buried.

"It says the Taliban were to blame for deliberately putting villagers in
harm's way to create outrage over civilian deaths, and some names in the
government's list of victims *may* be fake. According to the military's
version of events, many of the dead *may have been* fighters, and some
civilians *may have been* killed by militants throwing grenades, rather
than by air strikes."

It's in that context that the reference to "only" 22 adult males occurs.
Cheers,
John


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