Civilian Afghan Casualties - NYTimes.com Re "As Afghan Pullout Nears, Civilian Casualties Rise" (news article, Aug. 1): The increase in civilian casualties caused by Afghan forces should be a call to action for the Kabul government. Over the last decade, the government of President Hamid Karzai chided international forces about civilian casualties. Now the government needs to take the lessons learned by international forces and apply them to its own forces, starting with tracking civilian harm and adapting tactics to better avoid civilians in the first place. Until the government takes responsibility for civilian harm seriously - both responding to it and making sure that its forces are properly trained to avoid it - the number of Afghan civilians hurt by Afghan troops will only rise. The writer is senior legal adviser at the Center for Civilians in Conflict.