Last month, UN war crimes investigators described the situation in Raqqa, Syria resulting from US airstrikes as a “staggering loss of civilian life.” This from the US-led Coalition’s Operation Inherent Resolve – which the US has been trying to ‘resolve’ (rather unsuccessfully) since 2014.
US officials are now claiming that they have only killed around 600 civilians during its ‘anti-ISIS’ operations in Iraq and Syria, but that does not square with data collected by independent groups which brings the total to around 4,354 civilians (conservatively) who have been killed as a result of US-led coalition bombing campaigns since June 2014.
21WIRE editor Patrick Henningsen spoke to RT International last night about this discrepancy and about the hypocrisy of US officials when conducting their public relations damage control after any said ‘intervention,’ including the use of cynically concocted, militarized politically correct terms like ‘collateral damage.’
He points out in this report, “What Americans don’t understand, because they haven’t had to face it on their own territory – is that one man’s collateral is another man’s wife and children – and that’s a reality in Syria.”
SEE ALSO: Henningsen’s OpEd from 2010:
“Learning the Love Collateral Damage in Afghanistan”