The unfortunate attacks that occurred on September 11th have brought a wave of controversy throughout the world about technological advances in warfare. While new weapons and bombs are created everyday, the United States is still somewhat unsure of what and whom they are actually hitting. It has been speculated that hundreds of innocent people in Afghanistan have had their lives taken by American bombs crashing into peaceful villages nowhere near Al Qaeda territory.
President Bush claims the United States will go after the enemies of terrorism and no one else. The innocent farmers in Afghan villages who pray to Allah for peace are definitely not enemies of terrorism. Although it might be difficult to pinpoint a target like the Taliban or Al Qaeda fighters, we have to wonder if the United States is doing the best possible job they can to not have unnecessary casualties. Beyond doing their best, the United States cannot be careless and be looked at as a hypocrite by taking innocent lives for no reason. If the United States does end up taking just as many innocent lives as suffered, support might be lost in the end by other nations. Other countries might feel we aren't getting to the core of the problem and instead physically hurting the land and people in which the problem originated. .
News and media might also play a role in the number of civilian deaths reported in Afghanistan. Never before has there been day-to-day coverage on what is happening in Afghanistan and surrounding countries. Many topics that have never been discussed in media before have been topics since the beginning of the war on terrorism. For example, civilian deaths have always been mentioned but never in detail like they have been now. More people are paying more attention to more aspects of war such as political allies and surrounding nations and their opinions, not just defeating the enemy. .
Another aspect the United States has to contend with is maybe never knowing how many innocent casualties they killed while trying to stomp out terrorism.