As President Hamid Karzai spends the day with President Barack Obama mending some seriously broken fences in Washington, we thought: what better time to toot our own horn?
Below, Open Society Institute's Erica Gaston discusses the work she has been doing to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan - the very issue that is likely to be at the top of President Karzai's agenda.
It's worth mentioning that the perceived number of casualties may be much more than the 2,400 Erica cites. Resentment for the war breeds rumors of more casualties which breeds more resentment - and so on. In February, General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander in Afghanistan, even ordered a reduction of night raids (more Erica) in an effort to raise NATO's reputation on the ground.
Yet despite such measures, Afghan authorities report that civilian deaths in April increased by about a third compared to the same period last year. While US officials maintain that the majority of civilian casualties fall at the hands of the Taliban, at today's meeting President Obama acknowledged he is "ultimately accountable" for their deaths.
You can read more about Erica's work and her assessment of the situation in Afghanistan at Foreign Policy's AfPak Channel and at Huffington Post.
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