Writes John Leo Keenan: “I just read this in CNN. The U. S. military accidentally killed Afghan civilians, has apologized and…given 2000 dollars to the victims’ families. I used to live in a third world country (many years and I have been in several of them). Not even the cash-strapped, poor Bolivian police force would dare to pay 2000 dollars to compensate a family for such a situation. What ignorance on the part of the U.S. government! Don’t they see it’s an insult to the Afghan families? I guess they are killing too many innocent people and can’t afford a decent compensation for every victim. Why, peoples in the third world also tend to know how much a new refrigerator, or say an old car, costs, even when they can’t afford it. To pay a family 2000 dollars is to tell them their son is worth less than a used car or a refrigerator in Afghanistan. Never been there but that’s the price of such things in at least most third world countries. Of course, one can not put a price tag on life but 2000 dollars is too low in any circumstance! It’s a further offense and humiliation, not a compensation.
“The U.S. military could and maybe should take lessons in ethics and compassion from third world organizations. The Mexican police force might explain to them well why 2000 dollars is just too little for a human life taken in that way. Our representatives! To think that they are our representatives…”
6:41 pm on May 8, 2007
