Afghanistan’s Karzai pays families $2000 per dead child

The United States spends $57,000 per minute in Afghanistan, so free spending is the norm for the American military over there. But when they kill innocent people, the numbers get a lot smaller in a hurry. Invading U.S.-led forces killed nine children in Ghazi Khan village in December. They were dragged from their beds and then shot; the youngest was twelve and the oldest was 17. Hamid Karzai’s government has agreed to pay the families of the murdered children 100,000 Afs each, which is the equivalent of about $2,000 in American Federal Reserve notes.

It’s agreed upon by all concerned that these kids were completely innocent of any wrongdoing. But when you read about the “militant” Taliban, who are so horribly frightening and dangerous, it would be useful to remember that they are natives of a country where the per capita income is less that $1,000 year. Many of them are just kids, like these innocents, who are trying to survive. They are not aliens from the planet Evil. They are in a real sense victims of a global economy that has left them angry and hopeless.