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Dear US, 2-year-olds aren't terrorists

By Zhang Zhouxiang | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-09-16 15:40

An Afghan boy buys bread as other children wait for free bread in front of a bakery in Kabul on Tuesday. BULENT KILIC/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

A day before the United States finished pulling its troops out of Afghanistan, it launched a drone attack into a residential area of Kabul on Aug 29, killing a family of 10, seven of them children and two of them just two years old.

A New York Times report quoted US officials as saying they launched the strike after analyzing drone footage that suggested a man was loading heavy containers into his car, which they took to be explosives meant for use against US troops at the Kabul airport. However, the US may have mistaken an aid worker for an ISIS-K suicide bomber.

The US never tires of calling itself a defender of "human rights", for which it sends its troops to launch strikes in every corner of the world. However, the US does not care one bit about the lives of non-Americans, let alone their rights. For them, mere suspicion of a civilian car carrying explosives is reason enough to kill seven children.

Of the 248 armed conflicts the world has seen between 1945, when World War II ended, to 2001, 201 were launched by the US. In the past 20 years, US-launched wars have killed around 335,000 civilians.

It may not be wrong to call the US – which has taken death and destruction to other regions by launching wars to keeps its shores safe – a "warmonger".

Of course, it has not remained fully shielded. A third of its soldiers returning after military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have reported spiritual or psychological issues, while from 2008 to 2016, some 6,000 veterans have committed suicide every year. The only ones who seem unperturbed are the US politicians and arms dealers, who have benefited immensely.

On Wednesday, a cartoon went viral showing the funeral of the family that was bombed in Kabul. It showed 10 coffins, three big and seven small, placed in a row and a sign saying: "I am only 2 years old. I am not a terrorist." US credibility too got buried with it and there is no scope of its resurrection unless the US finds its long-lost conscience.

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