Leaders of the NATO invasion forces attempting to subjugate
Afghanistan often cite statistical evidence to convince a skeptical
public that the war effort is going well. In particular, they
emphasize the success of “capture-or-kill” operations targeting
leaders of the Afghan resistance. These claims are now being
undermined by a study recently released by the Kandahar-based
Afghanistan Analysts Network. The report, by Alex Strick van
Linschoten and Felix Kuehn, examined 3,771 press releases published
by the NATO-led International Stability Assistance Force between
December 2009 and September 2011.
The report shows
that for every resistance “leader” killed in a raid, an average
of eight other people also died. It also reveals that ISAF used the
term “leader” so loosely as to be meaningless. A “leader”
might simply be the owner of a house that ISAF suspected was used by
resistance forces. An earlier study also noted that NATO later
released many of the so-called “leaders” they had captured in
raids.
