Wedding airstrike kills civilians

Last week Sunday. About 40 civilians, including children, were killed in a US-backed airstrike during a wedding celebration in southern Hemland province, Afghanistan.

This airstrike was joined by a ground operation against suspected members of the Taliban, and it seems that innocent casualties were once again involved, with many innocents dying as a result. Multiple others were also reported to be wounded and brought to the hospital.

On a similar note, as Afghan and US forces have intensified the number of airstrikes against Taliban and Islamic State group militants in Afghanistan, the UN has reported a sharp increase in such “collateral damage” in the last year. The number of civilian casualties caused by both anti-government elements and by Afghan or US forces have been rising even as talks were being conducted seeking after peace between the Taliban, the US government, and thegovernment of Afghanistan. These numbers have only increased further after the peace talks failed.

While most of us worry about how we dress every day, others have to worry about being added to the egregious toll of civilian casualties. Our worries and stresses about things like college tuition, student loans and debt do not necessarily lack importance when compared to protecting our own lives, but it is a completely different kind of fear or worry all the same.

The thing is, we’re not “wrong” or “ungrateful” if we take specific care in picking out what we want to wear every day. Instead ther shouldn’t be anyone who has to care about impending airstrikes. We shouldn’t have to go about our lives in perpetual fear of becoming another number amongst countless civilian casualties.

My prayers go out to the innocent victims of war.

Darlon Riviere - Staff Writer