Editorial: Irreversible effects of bombs
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May 23, 2018
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The policy of Afghanistan Times Daily dictates us to be against any bombing. This newspaper abhors bombings and considers them at odds with the national sovereignty of Afghanistan. Yesterday, the daily published an opinion suggesting that bombs should be dropped on poppy fields to decimate the source of terrorist financing. That judgment, as it occurs, is contradictory and wrong which is as a result of wrong analytics. We insist that our policy is against bombings – whether on mountains or poppy lands – as they cause destruction and have proved to be counterproductive in their cause.
Despite the fact that Americans’ unilateral military actions – including but not limited to aerial bombings – are frowned upon in Afghanistan, alas a string of airstrikes on Taliban and Daesh strongholds and drug labs have caused controversy again. Dismantling militancy and eradicating poppy cultivation is a priority both for the Afghan government and its coalition allies, but not at the cost of destroying lives and contaminating the environment with biohazards. The detriments and the collateral damage these bombs cause categorically outweigh their gains. Any sort of bombs – lethal or nonlethal – pose grave threat to civilians living in bombarded areas. Even a small bomb would cause destruction to life and irreversible damage which would last for many years to come.
Last year, the U.S. forces dropped the mother of all bombs on an Islamic State cave complex in eastern Nangarhar province. The damages were too fatal that the U.S. forces were not letting anyone visit the scene of the bombing. That bomb purportedly killed almost 100 unruly combatants loyal to the Daesh militant group – no proof of which has been provided though.
The destructive power of that 11-ton TNT bomb was equivalent to the 21,600-pound bomb that was dropped on Japan at the end of the World War II. Like that, so many other bombs have been dropped on Taliban and Islamic State sanctuaries, but to no avail. Neither insurgents have at all been decimated nor have bombings stopped. Terrorists are still at large, orchestrating their vicious campaign of terror all across the country. The war is prolonging without hindrance, continuing taking toll on the Afghan population.
It is not possible to simply describe the damages bombs cause – as severity of which is greater than one can fathom. In some areas, which have been bombarded, the chance of living or growing crops would not be possible for years, or maybe decades. These bombs are more devastative than they are proactive and productive in weeding out belligerency and militancy. In fact, bombs only destroy our lands rather than do away with terrorists. The threat of Daesh and other terrorist networks is becoming greater than ever. More innocent civilians are killed in terrorist attacks than terrorists are killed in pseudo counterterrorism offensives.
As bombs are proving to be a failure in fighting terrorism and decimating terrorist havens and insurgent-run drug laboratories, thus this countermeasure should be avoided. These bombardments violate the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of Afghanistan. An end to militancy-induced bloodshed and militant-cultivated poppy production is favored; but bombings are no longer a trajectory.
Afghanistan Times
