Posted on 02/13/2002 4:46:48 PM PST by invaderzim
KABUL -- Victims of the ongoing U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul Wednesday to demand compensation for their losses.
Among the victims were 21-year-old Aziz Ullah, whose left leg was sliced off by a piece of flying shrapnel, and 34-year-old Abdul Bashir, who lost "my beautiful daughter" when a bomb exploded near where she was playing in the street in October.
Orfa Abdulahmad, meanwhile, tearfully told reporters how she had lost eight members of her family when her home was hit by a wayward bomb soon after the air raids began on October 7, AFP reported.
The demands for compensation come amid a new outcry over the civilian toll of the bombing campaign.
Afghan officials have said a CIA missile strike last week in eastern Khost Province killed three poor villagers, not Al-Qaeda fighters as the Pentagon has suggested.
The victims outside the embassy on Wednesday suffered their losses during the early stage of the bombings, which are aimed at destroying the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born dissident accused of masterminding the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The U.S. government has set aside one million dollars to pay medical expenses of Afghans who have lost limbs in the bombing but the funds, to be distributed through the U.S. agency for international development, have yet to reach Afghanistan.
Marla Ruzicka, program coordinator for the global exchange non-governmental organization which is behind efforts to pressure the U.S. government to compensate victims of the bombings, called for the immediate establishment of a 20-million-dollar fund.
"The victims need homes now. Aziz Ullah needs a leg now. They can't wait months and months," she told the gathering.
Ruzicka, 25, added that 20 million dollars was less than the 30 million dollars spent each day by the U.S. government on bombing Afghanistan.
One survey carried out by a U.S. researcher said there were at least 3,767 civilian casualties between October 7 and December 6 alone. Other independent estimates have put the toll at around 1,000.
We rid them of the Taliban and are going to help rebuild their nation, but I guess that is not enough.
How much could it cost to give them their so called compensation though? What could the average house in Afghan cost to rebuild, 20 or 30 US dollars?
Please! They have gained more than they have lost.
I suggest they hit up Osama and the Taliban for compensation.
Surprised it took them this long.
Then again, look at the source of this story. I wouldn't trust an Iranian newspaper if they said Bill Clinton was a liar.
This "outcry" is 100% typical socialist blather.
However, finding only rubble and a few junk cars, the victims left the former embassy and wandered around aimlessly until they spotted a passing reporter...
Don't you know that the U.S. was the one who put the Taliban in in the first place?
The Taliban marched into power after the anti-Soviet resistance (which kicked out the Soviet army with US help) collapsed into anarchy. The only way it could be said that the US "put the Taliban in power" was that it didn't hang around and do nation-building after the Soviets were kicked out.
But you know what? No one asked us to rebuild their nation. They only asked us for weapons to help them get rid of the Soviet invaders, which we did. Now we've helped them get rid of the Taliban curse.
Twice we've rescued Afghanistan. It's the American people that should be asking for compensation from the Afghan people. But of course we won't do that... cause we're the good guys!
Not really. It was the Pakistani military and intelligence establishment. The US only funded the mujahadeen, some of which became Taliban, some of which became Northern Alliance.
And the current "government" which the U.S. has installed is totally powerless and the people in charge are currupt warlords.
The provisional government is a coalition of tribal leaders, military generals, and politicians from all sectors of the country. Hamid Karzai is certainly as capable of running the country as Mullah Omar, and considerably less tyrannically.
This is where you jump up on your perch and start cackling "It's all about oil. It's all about oil" like a benzedrine-fed parrot.
But what do you think is going to happen? They've already started making the new government, and it is already evident that it is just a puppet, with the warlords in control. So perhaps it won't be a crazy Muslim nation, but I can assure you that it won't be much better.
LOL, I see I'm not the only one fed up with the "It's all about oil" crap.
Crowds like this inspire me to think like a Roman legionaire.
Machine gun the whole crowd.
Don't put words in my mouth. This may be about oil, but I'd like to think that it is The U.S. needed to retaliate after WTC collapse, so it decided to attack somebody who it could place the blame of WTC on. True, the Taliban didn't want to hand over UBL, however, it probably didn't have the ability to hand over UBL even meant to be a show of power. if it wanted to. So what do we do? Bomb the &*@# out of them.
True, the U.S. didn't put the Taliban in place per se, but it did help set in motion events that allowed Taliban to get into power (and the U.S.'s role was fairly large; by providing weapons it allowed the guerrillas to attack helicopters, something that was until then the invincible weapon against them). The Taliban is just a government that is extreme in the opposite direction of the previous government. Whereas the last one was extremely corrupt, the Taliban was totalitarian. However, I don't think anyone can say that that Taliban was any worse than the previous government, mainly because the same kind of people are in power. We hear about stories in which Taliban tortured people to death, but I am sure that previous governments did the same things.
This reeks of Terry McAuliffe and James Carville. Probably an American trial lawyer (acting on behalf of the DNC "destroy Bush PAC") provided talking points and coaching, hoping to squeeze more $$$ from the US taxpayers. Didn't Dershowitz send memos to our enemies coaching them on their "legal rights" in case they were arrested for their terrorist activities?
You've got it, Ragtime Cowgirl. When looking for the lead vipers, start stirring the nests closest to home!
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