Air strike killed 37 Afghan civilians: investigation

[xochi]

Source: Reuters

Sun Nov 9, 2008 5:20am EST

KABUL (Reuters) - A joint Afghan and U.S. military investigation has concluded an air strike last week killed 37 civilians and wounded 35 more after Taliban militants launched an ambush from the cover of a village, the U.S. military said.

President Hamid Karzai said after the incident the issue of civilian casualties was the biggest source of tension with his main backer, the United States, and called on President-elect Barack Obama to make it his priority to stop innocents being killed.

A string of mistaken U.S. air strikes this year have killed at least 150 Afghan civilians, undermining public support for the continued presence of more than 60,000 NATO-led and U.S. coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Villagers told investigators a large number of insurgents arrived at the village of Wech Baghtu, in southern Afghanistan, and used homes to fire on a joint patrol of U.S.-coalition and Afghan forces, the U.S. military said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4A80NJ20081109

[Shardik]

1. While I hate to read stories like this,

I am glad they are published.

What a terrible shame.

[POAS]

2. Let us not forget the reason for so many

air strikes. The lack of adequate troops on the ground because of Bush's war of choice in Iraq.

Hamid Karzai has on several occasions demanded that Bush put an end to these air strikes that lead to civilian casualties and now has made the same demand to Obama even though it is months away from his taking the oath of office.

Obama's strategy of lessening the troop involvement in Iraq and strengthening our position in Afghanistan should help, but not immediately.

The military solution is ok for the short run but social and political solutions will be necessary for a lasting peace in both those places.

[SpiralHawk]

3. How many massacres of innocents has Commander AWOL Bush presided over?

In matters military, the republicon FAIL is totally tragic.

[dcindian]

4. This is not a winning strategy

You cannot do police work with a bomb.

[ohio2007]

8. French aid worker is abducted in Kabul ( and what is the best strategy ? )

a job for Inspector Clouseau

KABUL, Afghanistan - Gunmen kidnapped a French aid worker in central Kabul yesterday and shot dead an Afghan bystander who tried to thwart the abduction, police and witnesses said.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/11/04/french_aid_worker_is_abducted_in_kabul/

You saw the article on the French troops that were sold out by their Afghan interrupter ?

well,
then what is the best strategy ?
Oh, just leave.

[Vattel]

5. Don't bomb villages. It's murder.

Oh, I forgot, it's war and so murder and cowardice is OK. (sarcasm)

[ohio2007]

9. Don't blow up shoppers in the market with suicide belts. Its not fashionable

41 killed in suicide blast
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/11/07/afghan/index.html

Don't even start on the child abuse problem they have
http://en.rian.ru/world/20081105/118133430.html

[elocs]

6. Here's the dilemma: Taliban, insurgents fire and attack our forces from civilian houses

and villages, sometimes with the civilians still in the houses and undoubtedly in the villages. This presents a no win situation for our military because they can either just take the casualties from the battle or they can fire back and risk civilian casualties and then the Taliban will point the finger at them for killing civilians. I have even read a case where the Taliban fired upon U.S. forces from a house that our military thought had no civilians in it, so they called an airstrike on the house only to find the Taliban had retreated leaving some children tied up in the house.

The vast and overwhelming majority of our troops in Afghanistan are just regular people, men and women who are our son and daughters, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends. They are not thugs, cowards, and murderers although the same cannot be said of the Taliban and insurgents. They have no desire to see innocent civilians killed or injured and imagine how they feel when they see civilians they know and who have helped them who are butchered and executed by the Taliban for helping the Americans. These same soldiers must then return here and live with the tragedies they have witnessed and may have been part of causing. It is not surprising that they have such a high rate of post traumatic stress syndrome.

[ohio2007]

7. you also can throw in the wedding party human shields used by the Taliban as a tactical defense

The guns being fired in celebration of children entering wedded bliss .....that has brought down helicopters in the past is also overlooked



that isn't mentioned much in the breaking news stories.


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/magazine/09BRI.html


much gets overlooked out of respect for cultural differences.





but what do I know. Many people here feel I should respect and accept their beliefs and should help them get a firm foothold establishing their system in our own diversified country

[Vattel]

10. It's not that they want to kill civilians

It's that they are too willing to risk doing so.

[elocs]

12. Please explain how if you are being fired upon from a house that you cannot fire back.

There is no willingness involved there, it is survival. If someone is trying to kill you, then you fight back. I don't for a second believe that there is any widespread willingness by any of our troops to deliberately kill civilians.

[xochi]

11. More innocent civilians are killed in modern warfare than combatants--

a tragic fact inevitably ignored by the politicians in Washington who lead us there. Also, remember this campaign story?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/3/143222/281/995/618352