USA Under-Compensating Afghans for Civilian Deaths

see http://www.chycho.com/?q=node/443 for links to sources

News: U.S. Pays and Apologizes to Kin of Afghans Killed by Marines - “I stand before you today, deeply, deeply ashamed and terribly sorry that Americans have killed and wounded innocent Afghan people,” Colonel Nicholson said, recounting to reporters the words he had used in the meetings. In a videoconference to reporters at the Pentagon, he added, “We made official apologies on the part of the U.S. government” and paid $2,000 for each death.”

According to the “Value of statistical life” (PDF), the average American life is worth approximately $6 million dollars. If we consider that the average GDP per capita in the United Sates is $43,500, and that in Afghanistan the average GDP is $800, then the compensation to Afghan families for the wrongful death of a family member by the US Military should be approximately $110,000. This means that the US government is under compensating the Afghani families by a factor of 55.

This is even an underestimate since the GDP figures in the CIA Fact Book do not consider the moneys earned through opium production. Since the US invasion of Afghanistan, the opium harvest has soared to record levels, which means that the average GDP in Afghanistan should be much higher then reported. This would mean that the $2,000 compensation to each family member is even more unjust then the 55 factor stated above.

So why is the US government underpaying Afghani citizens for the death of a family member by hundreds of thousands of dollars? Because they can and no one is going to do anything about it! Except of course the Taleban who have promised to increase attacks on coalition troops and make this the bloodiest year since its fall in 2001.

We must also not forget that the US military initially tried to hide the events of this massacre by deleting all photo and video evidence of the incident.

For an estimate of the number of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan please see Unknown News.

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