U..S. CLAIMS IT KILLS INSURGENTS - MOST ARE REALLY ONLY CIVILIANS

Pamela Constable writes for the Washington Post Foreign Service that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is fed up with the number of Afghan civilian casualties resulting from U.S. forces waging their counter-insurgency campaign in Afghanistan.

Every time the U.S. reports so many insurgents or Taliban killed, I wonder how many civilians this number includes. As it turns out, a large number of the killed and wounded are innocent civilians. It seems that the U.S. military puts out an enemy casualty number to buttress George Bush and his deceptive campaign to convince Americans that he is making progress whether in Afghanistan or Iraq. The number of casualties is therefore always suspect.

If this is what the War on Terror means - killing innocent Afghan women, children, babies - then I say end this Reign of Terror. Winning hearts and minds cannot be done with bombs and war planes. We need a new strategy, a new direction, a new president.