Civilian Deaths in Afghan War

Re civilian deaths in Afghanistan (“The Untold War,” June 2-3): Thanks to The Times for attempting to account for the thousands of civilian deaths caused by the U.S. attack on Afghanistan. While the second report framed those dead Afghans in the context of exaggerated claims by the Taliban government, it could just as easily have been framed in the context of U.S. military and government denial and downplaying of innocent civilians killed while heavy bombing was a daily occurrence.

I still wonder whether the people who called for war and revenge after Sept. 11 are happy. Almost as many innocent people were killed in the U.S. attack on Afghanistan as were killed in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, not counting (because no one yet has) the hundreds of thousands more who suffered and died from starvation exacerbated by the war. Now that they have their “eye for an eye” can we withdraw our military from Central Asia?

Kevin Donegan

Berkeley

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What is this nonsense that some in Afghanistan want compensation for the deaths because of the bombings? Did the participants in WWII compensate the people who were bombed and killed? How about Korea and Vietnam? So they say that 150 people died in a village near Tora Bora, an insignificant number if you compare it to London and Coventry, England; Hamburg and Dusseldorf, Germany; Tokyo; Hiroshima; Seoul; and Hanoi, to mention a few places that were bombed. Those folks need to get real and face reality.

James Barry

Huntington Beach