Does Bombing Women and Children (76 Killed Friday in Afghanistan) Create More Or Less al-Qaeda members?

Question

An operation by international forces in western Afghanistan on Friday killed 76 civilians, including 50 children and 19 women, the Afghan interior ministry said.

"Seventy-six people, all civilians and most of them women and children, were martyred during the operation by coalition forces in Shindand district of Herat province," the ministry said in a statement.

The dead were "19 women, seven men and the rest children all under 15 years of age," it said.

The ministry confirmed it would be one of the highest civilian deaths tolls in the battle to fight the extremist Taliban, who were ousted during a US-led invasion in 2001.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/23/11113/

http://news.antiwar.com/2008/08/interior-ministry-us-airstrikes-kill-76-afghan-civilians/

50 Civilians Killed in an Afghanistan wedding by a U.S. Bombing a month ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7504574.stm

Answer 1

More, always more. This is very sad. Consider how many of us who live in luxury and a life of privilege have a hard time being rational and reasonable all the time and it's pretty obvious how, when your innocent family members or friends get killed by this rich mighty foreign country, it might seem like a good idea to join the Jihad as misdirected as that is. Coalition forces unfortunately kill more civilians in Afghanistan than the Taliban does. That's been going on for a while now while never defeating the Taliban completely leaving many ordinary Afghans wondering who'll be in power next year

Answer 2

2700 Americans died at 9/11 I say keep it going.

Answer 3

Well, those sorts of civilian deaths in Afghanistan drive the populace into the Taliban, not al-qaida.

Answer 4

It might or might not kill half a dozen 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' but by killing innocent men, women and children it probably makes another 50-100 terrorists and another 500-1,000 sympathisers.

You DON'T fight 'terrorism' with bombs... can you imagine if this tactic was used against terrorists in towns and villages in the USA?  People would go absolutely ballistic - and rightly so!

Answer 5

This is one of those really unfortunate situations.  During war a lot of innocent civilians get killed and wounded.  Unfortunately the situation is such that our troops are not in a position to freely mix with the civilian population and truly make friends.  One hopes the heavy handed tactics of our enemies offset our regrettable errors.  I'm sure that each time this occurs we drive some people into the arms of the enemy.  I just do not know of any good solution for this.  We already with-hold air support from our troops too much for fear of collateral damage.  I may sound rather harsh, but I really do not want my son or the sons of my neighbors killed or wounded because we were afraid to use close air support to help them in a tight situation.

Answer 6

Judo they were NOT all American

"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength."