As If to Underline...

...what a farce the GOP's Congressional hearing about the "radicalization of American Muslims" really is, via Reuters [trigger warning for violence]:

Targeted killings of civilians in Afghanistan doubled last year, the United Nations said on Wednesday, as an expanding insurgency strikes at Western efforts to build up the Afghan government and security forces.

In an annual report, the United Nations said 2010 marked the most lethal year for noncombatants in the nearly decade-old war, with a 15 percent increase in the number of civilians killed to 2,777 -- continuing a steady rise over the past four years.

Insurgents were responsible for 75 percent of those deaths.

...Casualties among women rose 6 percent in 2010, and among children by 21 percent, while "the spread and intensity of the conflict meant that more women and children had even less access to essential services such as healthcare and education."

Suicide attacks and homemade bombs claimed most lives.

Civilian deaths caused by "NATO and Afghan forces" were down last year, but "NATO and Afghan forces" still killed 440 civilians. And where the US is "surging," so are civilian deaths: "Civilian assassinations were up 588 percent and 248 percent in Helmand and Kandahar provinces respectively, the main strongholds of the Taliban and the focus of a US troop surge."

I'm absolutely not saying that life would be wine and roses in Afghanistan if we'd never put boots on the ground there, nor am I remotely suggesting that the Taliban is a swell outfit, but, um, you know, maybe less with the Congressional hearings on the "radicalization of American Muslims" and more with the Congressional hearings on the "militarization of the American Empire."

"Keep dreaming!"—The GOP.