The war in Afghanistan claimed new victims today in an especially grievous attack in Kabul. Having traveled this very road many times myself, I can attest to the exceptional cruelty of such callous attacks in high traffic areas of Kabul. The road where this attack took place is normally full of taxis, buses, pickup trucks, and scores of pedestrians.
The goal of terrorism is to provoke shock and fear in order to coerce a capitulation from your enemy. Fighting a war and committing acts of terrorism are two entirely different things. A desire to attack soft targets in order to minimize the number of a group’s own lives that must be traded for an enemy’s can be understood from a tactical point of view but the indiscriminate killing of innocents can never be justified, let alone the killing of one’s own people.
I tweeted from the outskirts of Kabul last year that I heard groups of children laughing and playing a short distance from where I was standing. It was refreshing and felt like progress since it was the first time I had heard this sound in the seven years since I first went there. Not even 1 year later, those children are no doubt crying today as the location of this suicide attack was less than a half kilometer from where they played together mere months ago.
For me, this is not just a story on the news. My condolences go out to all of the victims—both Afghan and coalition—which hopefully do not include any of the friends I have on the ground there right now.
Afghan Suicide Blast Kills 5 Troops
The war in Afghanistan claimed new victims today in an especially grievous attack in Kabul. Having traveled this very road many times myself, I can attest to the exceptional cruelty of such callous attacks in high traffic areas of Kabul. The road where this attack took place is normally full of taxis, buses, pickup trucks, and scores of pedestrians.
The goal of terrorism is to provoke shock and fear in order to coerce a capitulation from your enemy. Fighting a war and committing acts of terrorism are two entirely different things. A desire to attack soft targets in order to minimize the number of a group’s own lives that must be traded for an enemy’s can be understood from a tactical point of view but the indiscriminate killing of innocents can never be justified, let alone the killing of one’s own people.
I tweeted from the outskirts of Kabul last year that I heard groups of children laughing and playing a short distance from where I was standing. It was refreshing and felt like progress since it was the first time I had heard this sound in the seven years since I first went there. Not even 1 year later, those children are no doubt crying today as the location of this suicide attack was less than a half kilometer from where they played together mere months ago.
For me, this is not just a story on the news. My condolences go out to all of the victims—both Afghan and coalition—which hopefully do not include any of the friends I have on the ground there right now.
from → Commentary