America Kills More Civilians
On Mar. 17, coalition airstrikes carried out by U.S. warplanes bombed a building in the al-Jadida neighbourhood of Mosul, Iraq. Estimates of civilian casualties caused by this air raid range from 140 to 240 dead Iraqis. The first thing the United States did was deny involvement in the event, instead blaming it on the Islamic State.
The attacks are part of an offensive campaign led by the United States and Iraqi forces to reclaim the city of Mosul from Islamic State control.
The Iraqi government, backed by U.S. support, assured the inhabitants of Mosul that the battle would be quick and easy. They even instructed them to remain in their homes in the city. Since then, IS snipers have shot anyone who attempts to leave the city, and the battle drags on, endangering many civilian lives.
As for the events of Mar. 17, the Iraqi forces and U.S. commanders initially blamed IS for using civilians as human shields or rigging the building with explosives. The U.S. Army Chief of Staff maintains the enemy did this to slow down the coalition airstrikes and keep their foothold on the city. Later on, however, Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend said, “My initial assessment is that we probably had a role in these casualties. If we did it—and I’d say there is at least a fair chance we did—it was an unintentional accident of war.” Rescue workers continue to sift through the wreckage more than two weeks later, but the United States seems to have absolved itself of any responsibility for the massive loss of life. The Pentagon has since begun a formal investigation on the incident.
In response to criticism, the Pentagon is in the process of declassifying a video of a separate incident apparently depicting IS using civilians as human shields. It is a rare occurrence for the Pentagon to release video of ongoing combat operations, though it was forced to do so not long ago to validate that the U.S. hadn’t destroyed a mosque.
In addition to the immediate impact these “unintentional accidents of war” have on the civilians in Mosul, they will also help shape public response following the battle. If IS manages to turn members of the Iraqi public against the coalition forces using the casualties airstrikes cause, it will grow increasingly difficult to stabilize the country. Worse still, the anger will not only be directed at the U.S., but also at the Iraqi forces that had a hand in the battle for Mosul, thus breeding distrust of the country’s own government.
When an article concerning this event was published on the website of The New York Times, it was drowned out by dozens of articles focusing on President Trump and who is to blame for the failure of the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The sheer volume of political “news” is enough to overwhelm the stories that matter. It also makes it frighteningly easy to forget about the people affected by these catastrophes all across the world. It makes it easy to forget about the man who buried 13 family members killed as a result of “unintentional accidents” in his backyard.