U.S. Dropping More Bombs on Afghanistan in 2018 than Any Previous Year

After U.S. forces declared a "victory" in the invasion of Afghanistan, many thought the Taliban were done for. But after 17 years of what seems like an endless war, half of Afghanistan has been retaken by the Taliban.

Since that time, ISIS has emerged, aided by U.S. and allied forced in regions like Syria where the push to remake the Middle East continues to push wars years after year, all in the false name of "freedom". Extremist violence is indeed a problem throughout the world, no matter what religious or other belief fuels it. But if it were not for the U.S., these past 17 years would have most likely resulted in very different outcomes with much less extremism found throughout the Middle East.

The prolonged dragging out of the conflict seems to have made many of us in the Western world numb to the whole conflict. It's become a baseline reality for us, not some shocking reality that we should oppose. But the reality of the many ingoing wars in the Middle East, be it in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria or Yemen, should be of concern to us, since we are funding it through the coercion of taxes.

We don't notice the war machine going on in our cushy geographical zones of comfort, but it's noticeable if we look outside our little illusory bubbles of reality. We may think that the wars have died down, that there are less bombing being done by the war machine, but U.S. is set to drop the most amount of bombs in Afghanistan this year, given there are 3 months left to go and it will likely surpass the previous record of 5,411 in 2011.

_{Made by @krnel from Source}

The U.S. Air Forces Central Command Airpower Summaries reports that 5,213 bombs have been dropped by manned and unmanned aerial vehicles in the first 9 months of 2018 alone. To put that into perspective with previous years with respect to Afghanistan:

• 2018: 5,213 bombs
• 2017: 4,361 bombs
• 2016: 1,337 bombs
• 2015: 947 bombs
• 2014: 2,365 bombs
• 2013: 2,758 bombs
• 2012: 4,083 bombs
• 2011: 5,411 bombs
• 2010: 5,100 bombs
• 2009: 4,163 bombs
• 2008: 915 bombs
• 2007: 1,708 bombs
• 2006: 310 bombs
• 2005: 176 bombs
• 2004: 86 bombs

This is a record year for bombing Afghanistan, and still 3 months to go. The lucrative military-industrial complex must be very pleased with itself and the generation of profits. The civilians killed don't seem to matter, since bombs are wide-area impact weapons. Those are just "collateral damage" to the war machine. In 2010, there were 1,271 killed with the 5,101 bombs dropped.

The quantity of bombs dropped was reduced at the end of Obama's presidency, at 947, I suppose in an attempt to make himself worthy of his laughable Nobel Peace Prize. Notice how the amount of bombing increased when Obama took power (about 4x more bombing under his command).

Trump's new Afghan strategy and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis' new policy to change the rules of engagement and fire on an enemy without being in contact, means that more bombs have been dropped. And that means more civilians are being killed at the hands of these bombs. The UN has reported that the first 9 months of 2018 also has higher civilian causalities than any years since in started documenting in 2009.

To all of those who think things have gotten better, think again. We in the West are still deep in the shit of war and killing innocent people.

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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