Larry Kerschner

Notes From the Editor

Larry Kerschner
Larry Kerschner

A number of years ago I became aware of the effects of the economic sanctions we were imposing on the people of Iraq. Among other intended and unintended consequences of our imposition of power, I found out that, according to the U.N., 5,000 children under the age of five were dying each month.

 

I was moved to go to Iraq in August 2000 to see for myself. I was heart-broken at what I witnessed. The casualness of this evil seemed unimaginable. Kathy Kelly, who I met in Iraq, recently returned from a trip to Afghanistan. She pointed me to a U.N. report on the current status of the children of Afghanistan.

Since we “liberated” Afghanistan from the Taliban, children have been dying of the same easily treated water-borne diseases that killed the children of Iraq. The difference is that in a country of similar population size an Afghani child is dying every two minutes. This comes to 25,000 brutal, unnecessary child deaths each month that we, in large part, are responsible for. Under international law, when a military occupies another country (whether legally or not) it becomes responsible for the health and safety of the population

Right now a quarter of all children born in Afghanistan, die before age five. Every half-hour an Afghani woman dies of pregnancy-related problems. Life expectancy is now 44 years. Sixty percent of Afghani children are malnourished. We starved and killed the children of Iraq for thirteen years and then were surprised when the Iraqi people did not greet our occupying military force with open arms.

The “war” in Afghanistan is currently the longest military engagement in U.S. history. We are wasting the lives and futures of our children and the children of Afghanistan. The billions of dollars that we are using to kill the brown-skinned children of our empire should be brought home and used for something life enhancing. Our desire for “the good life” has cost the death of too many children.

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