Afghanistan-Iraq

Global Studies Afghanistan-Iraq 8. Civilian Casualties in War

Objective Students will explore the civilian costs of war and the concept of ‘moral equivalence.’ Activities Warm-Up: Collect the Operation Enduring Freedom encyclopedia entries from each pair of students. Then randomly redistribute them around the room and have groups of students read them aloud together. They will then select the most detailed and concise entry to share with the class. Collateral Damage Invite students to respond to the following line from the New York Times: “This much is all but certain: when bombs fall, some of them will fall on the wrong people.” Then discuss the concept of collateral damage in war.

What Do You Wanna Know: Explain to the class that Luke is an amateur 16-year-old blogger. Read aloud as a class from “Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan” on his blog What Do You Wanna Know. Analyze with the class his argument that “Civilian casualties occurring on a regular basis is unfortunate, however the reality is that with war come these unfortunate situations…In the bigger perspective, we may be saving many more lives than the ones we are accidentally taking at this moment.” Though the deaths of Afghan civilians is unfortunate, who is actually responsible for their deaths.

Throughout the blog article, review the terms noncombatants, civilian casualties, collateral damage, and human shields.

War’s Hidden Cost: As a class, read and discuss “War’s Hidden Cost” from the New York Times. Use the following questions to help guide a discussion about the inevitability of civilian casualties in war:

Why is the term “friendly fire” so chilling? Has the U.S. military hit its intended targets? How does the Taliban’s use of human shields affect civilian casualties? Why is Pentagon not estimating how many civilians its bombs have killed? Can the killing of civilians sometimes actually save more human lives?

Debate: Ask the class the following question: Is the accidental killing of civilians in war morally equivalent to the deliberate killing of civilians in a terrorist attack. Have students vote with their feet by standing on opposite sides of the room. Then moderate a heated debate between both sides of the issue.

Assignment There is no homework.