Afghanistan: Nearly 1,600 Child Casualties in Airstrikes Over Past Five Years

Almost 1,600 children were killed or wounded in airstrikes in Afghanistan over the past five years, according to a report from Action on Armed Violence (AOAV).

The report analyses data released earlier this year by the UN and found that between 2016 and 2020, there were 3,977 civilian casualties from airstrikes in Afghanistan, 1,598 of which were children. Out of that number, 785 were killed, and 813 were wounded.

About 50 percent of the civilian casualties were caused by the US and its NATO coalition partners. The rest were at the hands of the Afghan Air Force, which is entirely propped up by the US.

From 2018 to 2019, the US dropped bombs on Afghanistan at a higher rate than it did during the height of the surge in 2011. In 2019, the US Air Force was responsible for more than two-thirds of child casualties from all airstrikes.

The Trump administration loosened the rules of engagement in Afghanistan, which led to the uptick in airstrikes. Last year, a report from Brown University’s Costs of War Project found that civilian casualties in airstrikes rose 330 percent from 2016 to 2019 due to the relaxed rules of engagement.

Since the US-Taliban peace deal was signed in February 2020, the US has reduced its airstrikes in the country, although the US has occasionally bombed the Taliban since. In March 2020, US Central Command stopped publishing reports on Afghanistan airstrikes, so there’s no way to know for sure at what rate the US bombed the country that year.

While US bombings decreased in 2020, the Afghan Air Force significantly escalated its airstrikes. The UN found that civilian casualties resulting from airstrikes by the Afghan Air Force during the first six months of 2020 had tripled, compared to the same time period in 2019.

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Racist Iowa State University Professor Says She Tries To Limit Interactions With White People ‘As Much As Possible’

An Iowa State University professor is under fire for a tweet in which she said she tries to limit her interactions with white people “as much as possible.”

The racist comment has made many question whether or not Iowa State University Professor Rita Mookerjee is grading or teaching white students fairly.

“Lately, I try to limit my interactions with yt people as much as possible. I can’t with the self-importance and performance esp during Black History Month,” the nutty professor wrote. “Yt” is slang for “white” and most frequently used when posting derogatory anti-white racism.

Campus Reform reports that in another October 2020 tweet, she tweeted that “whyte men with dirty hair and wrinkled clothes will always be liked and higher ranked.” She was also outraged online because someone supposedly called her “white.”

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Virginia Military Institute To De-Person Stonewall Jackson, Re-Attribute Quotes in Soviet-Style Purge

Under a vote passed by the school’s Board of Visitors, General Stonewall Jackson’s name will be removed from VMI’s Memorial Hall while a mural depicting the sacrifice of teenage VMI cadets who took heavy casualties in a famed charge on Union forces at the nearby Battle of New Market will be “contextualized.”

Taking things a step further, the school also voted to de-person Stonewall Jackson in a fashion reminiscent of the darkest days of the Soviet Union, erasing his name from beneath his own words of “You may be whatever you resolve to be,” from an Old Barracks inscription and a re-attributing it to someone else. According to local media reports, the quote will be re-attributed either to 19th-century educator William Alcott, Rev. Joel Hawes, or both – neither of whom appear to have had any link to the school in their lifetimes.

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‘Black linguistic justice’: Professors demand end to standard English as the norm

Abolish ‘White Mainstream English,’ English professors argue 

A national professional association of writing instructors recently published a list of demands that argued the current emphasis on standard English is rooted in racism and called for a complete overhaul of how language is taught.

It was published by a subcommittee with the Conference on College Composition and Communication, part of the National Council of Teachers of English.

The statement called for an end to “White Mainstream English,” arguing such an action would “decolonize” students’ minds and the English language, as well as help students “unlearn white supremacy.”

The demands were written by five English professors and a writing scholar and the document is titled: “This Ain’t Another Statement! This is a DEMAND for Black Linguistic Justice!”

“The language of Black students has been monitored, dismissed, demonized—and taught from the positioning that using standard English and academic language means success,” the professors argued.

They added such a set-up “creates a climate of racialized inferiority toward Black Language and Black humanity.”

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