[wideawake]

But what has been cruelly demonstrated is that the US and its camp followers are prepared to sacrifice thousands of innocents in a coward's war.

LOL!!! The more we wins, the bitterer they gets.

[Bommer]

Now, for the first time, a systematic independent study has been carried out into civilian casualties in Afghanistan by Marc Herold, a US economics professor at the University of New Hampshire. Based on corroborated reports from aid agencies, the UN, eyewitnesses, TV stations, newspapers and news agencies around the world, Herold estimates that at least 3,767 civilians were killed by US bombs between October 7 and December 10. That is an average of 62 innocent deaths a day - and an even higher figure than the 3,234 now thought to have been killed in New York and Washington on September 11.

So an ECONOMICS PROFESSOR who is an EXPERT in ECONIOMICS collected UNSUBSTANUATED reports from HIGHLY UNRELIABLE SOURCES to come up with definative death count, that is still only an ESTIMATE! Wonder if this goober was also used by the Democraps to calculate the number of black disenfranchised Florida voters! Call Jeff Cohn from F.A.I.R. This is the kind of crap he uses to back up acurate reporting by liberals!

[End Times Sentinel]

Based on corroborated reports from aid agencies, the UN, eyewitnesses, TV stations, newspapers and news agencies around the world, Herold estimates that at least 3,767 civilians were killed by US bombs

Why do I think this number was arrived at via: “Hmmm… let’s see. ABC says 2 were killed, CBS has it at 3, NBC has 2, CNN 4, the Taliban claims 28. 2+3+2+4+28 is 39! 39 innocent civilians were killed yesterday.”

[Numbers Guy]

A quick check of the web shows that Professor Herold is involved in various peacenik groups and thus has a bit of an axe to grind.

He uses newspapers as his sources for his estimates, but the reality is that just about all the estimates were either directly from Taliban sources or hearsay from relief people who talked to Taliban sources.

So, basically, it's Taliban garbage in and Taliban garbage out. And 62 civilian deaths per day actually would represent a mellowing of the Taliban regime.

Quaker Website that mentions the prof prior to his study

[tallhappy]

Putting it simply, Herold's figures are highly suspect.

[caisson71]

We learned from the Vietnam war. Liberals don't like body counts.

[Publius6961]

It has instead been paid by ordinary Afghans, who had nothing whatever to do with the atrocities, didn't elect the Taliban theocrats who ruled over them and had no say in the decision to give house room to Bin Laden and his friends.

It is hard to imagine being so divorced from reality as this Seumas Milne fellow and the Guardian.
Milne seems to to be totally unaware that culturally and morally, the Afghans are as different from westerners as martians.
Their culture and their morality where it comes to the value of human life makes it absurd to talk about them as if they were the neighbors down the block.
They are brutal on the family level and it escalates from there.

They "feared" (and respected) the Taliban more that they feared us.
And they paid they price; They actually judged us as erroneously as Milne judges them. And saw the result of our anger as ordinary as another primitive tribe's.
Big mistake. And lesson not yet learned. They are actually negotiating away the leaders of the Al Qaeda for money!

Innocent? I don't think so.
Debt paid? Not even close...

[cardinal4]

Shouldnt there be a barf alert?This guy is a liberal peacenik with some kind of agenda,Ive read his stuff before.People die in war,its too bad,but its war.Perhaps he should be asked about all the innocent Germans killed in Dresden and Cologne by British bombers.Or the Argentines for that matter.Jeez,I guess libs are everywhere.

[zandtar]

Gee, where was Marc Herold and all of this "concern" about innocents when the Taliban slaughtered 8,000 during their reign, in addition to the other atrocities they've commited upon the civilians?

[Ridin' Shotgun]

.... but because of the low value put on Afghan civilian lives by US military planners. .... and their campfollowers ....as is being demonstrated on this thread.

Seems most of the posters here are merely disappointed that more were not killed or maimed. If God is 'on the side of' bloodthirsty barbarians who revel in, or attempt to disparage ANY spilling of innocent blood, I want no part of this 'god' they worship.

Meanwhile, as grief walks the frozen hills of Afghanistan, OBL or whomever was responsible for 9/11 walks free.

[sheep]

Now, for the first time, a systematic independent study has been carried out into civilian casualties in Afghanistan by Marc Herold, a US economics professor at the University of New Hampshire.

I found that once I lost all credibility, I became independant

[dighton]

A dreadful column by the same author:

They can't see why they are hated

I can smell Milne from across the ocean, and it's not pleasant.

[HELLRAISER II]

Mr. Milne,

I think if a country attacks us and kills innocent Americans, I believe in the 1000 fold philosophy. For every single American killed we should kill a thousand of theirs. Now that might not sit well with some & they are entitled to their opinion, but it will damn sure make our enemies think before they act. The Taliban should have thought more before they put their people at risk, if you want someone to blame for the innocent Afghans. Well then talk to the B@stards that are responsible for it, the Taliban & Bin Laden not the U.S. By the way, get a life.

HELLRAISER II

[NittanyLion]

The decision to rely heavily on high-altitude air power, target urban infrastructure and repeatedly attack heavily populated towns and villages has reflected a deliberate trade-off of the lives of American pilots and soldiers, not with those of their declared Taliban enemies, but with Afghan civilians.

Imagine that! A nation chooses the lives of its own citizens over the lives of a combatant nation's citizens! The horror...

[A Navy Vet]

Boo-friggin-hoo.

[G.Mason]

[Polybius]

Based on corroborated reports from aid agencies, the UN, eyewitnesses, TV stations, newspapers and news agencies around the world, Herold estimates that at least 3,767 civilians were killed by US bombs between October 7 and December 10.

Based on the same criteria, 10,000 died at WTC which later turned out to be a grossly inflated figure.

This number of 3,767 is now being quoted by the Left and, as it is repeated again and again, will eventually become The Truth.

[SunStar]

It has instead been paid by ordinary Afghans, who had nothing whatever to do with the atrocities, didn't elect the Taliban theocrats who ruled over them and had no say in the decision to give house room to Bin Laden and his friends.

Then why didn't they oust the unwanted, foreign Taliban government?

[F.J. Mitchell]

Marc Herold and his fellow aiders and enablers of the worlds terrorists, choose to ignore the reality that the Afraghan civilians were the first victims of the malignant al-quaida-Taliban cancer, and it's roots had become so entangled with every good thing left in Afghanastan, that even with laser surgery, healthy cells have died along with the sick.

I believe that every good citizen of Afghanastan who has lost their lives through friendly fire or otherwise in the war against the terrorist who have held their country in captive abuse for many years, if able to speak for themselves, would tell us that if there had been a smidgen of hope of defeating the taliban and al-qaida before now, they would have already put their lives on the line.

This war is not about an eye for an eye, or killing as many terrorist as they kill of ours, or about revenge and/or pay back, it is about ridding the world of all who threaten the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happines of peace loving people. Good people are forced to kill certain agressors from time to time, just for survival's sake. Would life be worth living in a world where, fleas, ticks, bacteria, virus, mosquitos, mice, roaches, rabid animals, and fungus were declared to be endangered species and protected by law? Only for those belonging to the listed catagories. I didn't list terrorists among those other pests, even pestilence deserves more respect than that.

The world that pleases Marc Herold, would be hell-your world already exists, Marc, Bon Voyage.