Was the US invasion of Afghanistan a "genocide"?

[Mr. Ukucasha]

Given that both Afghanistan and the current Gaza war were kicked off by the other side launching a massive terror attack against civilians, it might make more sense to compare Gaza with Afghanistan (reportedly over 70K dead Afghans).

And I have never heard a single person, not even hard-line leftist pacifists, call Afghanistan a genocide.

Many have accused Israel of genocide, but under these same standards, wouldn't the US invasion of Afghanistan also count as a "genocide?"

Even the staunchest opponents of the Afghanistan War have never called the US invasion a "genocide." At worst, they call it a "war crime/crime against humanity", "imperialism", or "instigated for oil."

However, both Israel's war in Gaza and the US's war in Afghanistan were kicked off by the other side launching a massive terror attack against civilians. These conflicts were waged against far-right fundamentalists who wanted theocracies free of elements they dislike. And these conflicts unfortunately resulted in the deaths of many innocent civilians, with more civilians being killed than in the terrorist attacks that led to these conflicts in the first place.

However, the US caused FAR greater loss of life and brought the Afghan people FAR closer to annihilation than Israel has come to destroy the Palestinians. As a result of the US invasion of Afghanistan, ~70,000 Afghans died, whereas ~6,800 Palestinians have died as a result of the Israel-Palestine conflict SINCE 2008.

Therefore, was the US invasion of Afghanistan a "genocide"? Or is the fact that the far-left never calls the US invasion of Afghanistan a "genocide" proof that the widespread accusation of "genocide" against Israel is clearly motivated by anti-Semitism, grossly accusing Jewish people of a crime they were the biggest victims of in human history?

[redjohn]

Comparing raw numbers between a country of over 40 million and a tiny strip of land with ~590k people is disingenuous.

If we go by the UN definition of what a genocide is: The definition contained in Article II of the Convention describes genocide as a crime committed with the intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.

I don't know how one could argue that the intention of Netanyahu isn't to destroy Gaza and the Palestinian identity. I also don't know how bringing up a conflict that was completely destructive and resulted in no meaningful change relates to Gaza and what Israel is doing there. Even if the masses weren't shouting that the war in Afghanistan was a genocide while it was happening, how does that discredit what Israel is doing to Gaza today?

There is ample evidence that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza, attempting to cover up many of those war crimes, and is waging an international campaign to discredit international courts and the press. I'm not definitively saying that Israel is intentionally waging a genocide against Gazans and Palestine as a whole, but if Israel were waging a genocide against Palestine, I don't think the current situation would look very different. Whether you agree with the term "genocide" or not, Israel is destroying an entire people with no regard for human life.

[インターネット掲示板ユーザー Punxsutawney Phil]

Option 4.The latest flare-up has seen crimes against humanity, but no genocide, so far.

[Don't Blame Me, I'm from Massachusetts]

Option 4, but it was only warranted because of 9/11.

[SnowLabrador]

They're both genocides.

[Samof94]

I chose option 4, the sanest option. The Taliban have committed genocide as have the Chinese Government.

[NYDem]

No? The war in Afghanistan was justified by any standard that has ever existed in the history of international relations. There were problems with the way the war was fought, but nothing which comes close to "genocide".

I've said it before, but as time goes on people get a bit too reductionist when it comes to Bush's foreign adventures. They assume Afghanistan was unjustified because it was unsuccessful, and they assume Iraq was unsuccessful because it was unjustified.