Thread by @Americas_Crimes

On this day in 2001, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, launching a war that has killed over 200,000 people (incl. tens of thousands of civilians), destroyed much of the country, created millions of refugees & put in motion a cycle of violence, poverty & chaos.

The U.S. gov and its allies have waged war against the people of Afghanistan for nearly 2 decades, leaving truly unspeakable levels of destruction.

In 2019 so far, almost 32,000 Afghans have died as a result of the war, making the conflict the most deadly on earth. And the war is now more deadly for civilians than any previous point in the war. unama.unmissions.org/civilian-death…

According to Human Rights Watch, half of the entire population of Afghanistan experiences psychological distress. According to Unicef, 41% of children interviewed had lost a parent, a majority of children had witnessed torture or death firsthand.

President Trump removed the already weak protects for civilians in U.S. airstrikes. The result has been skyrocketing number of civilian casualties. In 2019, the U.S. & U.S.-backed central Afghan gov have been a greater threat to civilians than the Taliban. theguardian.com/world/2019/jul…

Just last month, a U.S. drone strike massacred over 30 Afghan farmers, and wounded 40 more. commondreams.org/news/2019/09/1…
Then days later, U.S.-backed Afghan forces killed at least 40 civilians attending a wedding party.
reuters.com/article/us-afg…

The C.I.A. has since 2001 run secret kill teams in Afghanistan to conduct night raids to terrorize the population & conduct executions. But a UN report from 2018, found that deaths by night raids of the C.I.A.-backed kill teams had tripled.

In one particularly disturbing example in 2018, a kill team entered a home of sleeping Afghan villagers, and began executing members of the family, including a woman. Then they set the home on fire, burning a 3 year-old child alive.
nytimes.com/2018/12/31/wor…

After nearly 2 decades of non-stop war, the cemeteries in Kabul, Afghanistan have run out of space to bury the dead.
nytimes.com/2016/06/06/wor…