At least 60 civilians were killed. Sixty. Many of the news stories on the attack at the Kabul airport do not even mention they were killed. No mention at all. The stories tell of the 13 U.S. Service officers killed. And, of the 18 injured.
But, no mention of the Afghan civilians. I guess some things just don't matter.
When you go to war, sometimes it is to defend another people. You fight for their freedom -- and for them. You give your life for the benefit of those in lands far away. In contrast to that, listen to what President Biden is saying: "The United States did what we went to do in Afghanistan: to get the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and to deliver justice to Osama Bin Laden, and to degrade the terrorist threat to keep Afghanistan from becoming a base from which attacks could be continued against the United States. We achieved those objectives. That's why we went."
Those are good objectives, but somehow, it seems something is being left out. So, it wasn't to help the Afghan people? It wasn't about their freedom? It wasn't about saving them from the Taliban? So, when 60 civilians die in the attack, that is none of our concern. We don't even make mention of it.
Something is not right about this. People's lives matter. There is a saying, All Lives Matter. Do they, then? Do all lives really matter? Do those 60-plus Afghan lives matter? Or, are they just an asterisk when it's Americans who are counting the deaths?
All Lives Matter. There could be a term for what we are doing: National bigotry.
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