‘In a statement, Colonel O’Hara said, “[F]orces exercised great restraint and prevented any civilian casualties at the same time the enemy placed the whole village in harm’s way by operating the way they do.”’
Besides the fact that O’Hara is an unlikely last name for an Israeli colonel, it’s hard to tell whether this statement applies to Gaza, Iraq or Afghanistan. In fact, it’s part of an American response to accusations that U.S. Special Ops killed 13 civilians in a raid on an Afghan village this month.
As the world (rightly) remains outraged at the destruction in Gaza, it’s good to remember that the U.S.A. continues a similar campaign in Afghanistan. The parallels should not be overstated–after all, Afghanistan is not our neighbor as Gaza is Israel’s. But these Afghan civilian deaths seem to take place further from the world’s attention than those in Gaza.
Let’s keep our eye on them, and keep pressuring Obama to make changes to his policy in addition to his rhetoric.
Eamon Kircher-Allen 
unfortunately public memory is short…Afghanistan and Iraq seem to have either fallen out of memory as two ongoing wars, or our outrage has become normalized now, and therefore numbed. Either way, you’re right, we need to remember the realities in Iraq and Afghanistan are also deteriorating, not just Gaza.