Who is Killing Civilians?

Abu Ghirab, Haditha, The Killing Club - you can probably recall several instances over the last nine years where American troops have been excoriated in the media for mistreatment of Iraqi or Afghan civilians. Every time a civilian becomes a casualty in this war, it causes an uproar with Americans and Arabs alike. And it should.

Problem is, in Afghanistan recently, we have begun paying reparations to the families of those caught in the crossfire. Nothing wrong with that in principle, only the Afghans have figured it out, and so now every time we drop a bomb in the current conflict, people come out of the woodwork claiming to have lost aunt Fatima or uncle Omar - and even though a single body can't be produced, sometimes hundreds claim a wrongful death, looking for a handout from the gullible Americans.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes easier just to pay it and move on, but this is a mistake.

What you don't hear about in the news are the large number of Afghan civilians who are killed by Taliban Improvised Explosive Devices - and the Taliban doesn't pay reparations.

Recently, an IED struck a school bus that was transporting a load of girls to school. Nine were killed, and more wounded. This horrific tragedy didn't rate so much as a blip on the radar screen for the mainstream media. But you need to know these things - so you can understand why our troops on the ground say we need to defeat this enemy.

See, when an insurgent bomb kills and maims innocent Afghans - our troops treat the wounded. In the school bus attack, American medevac helicopters transported those left alive to an American field hospital, where the wounded received care.

The Taliban don't care who they hurt. American troops are just the opposite - they regularly put themselves at greater risk to keep from hurting someone who doesn't deserve it. This attitude is being noticed by the Afghan people - we just have to stick around long enough for our troops' example of selfless service to rub off, and we will have won.

It could happen faster than you think.