Afghan Air Strike ‘Appropriate,’ German Defense Minister Says

[laststeamtrain]

Source: Bloomberg

Afghan Air Strike ‘Appropriate,’ German Defense Minister Says
By Patrick Donahue and Karin Matussek

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said that a military air strike in Afghanistan was justified, after federal prosecutors were asked to consider whether the incident might have breached German war crime laws.

Guttenberg, giving his response to an unpublished NATO report into the Sept. 4 bombing, said that tactical mistakes were made in carrying out the attack and that he believes civilians were killed. Even so, the decision to order in the strike was “appropriate,” he told reporters in Berlin today.

Guttenberg was speaking after prosecutors in the state of Saxony asked federal law enforcement officials to review allegations against a German army colonel who called in the air strike. The air strike targeted two immobilized tanker trucks seized by Taliban militants near the northern town of Kunduz.

The NATO report on strike shows that the case may have to be handled under German war crime laws and taken over by federal officials, the Chief Prosecutor’s Office of Saxony said today in a statement. Federal Prosecutors must review “whether the military action was permissible under public international criminal law,” Saxony officials said in the statement.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=a9s61YoBQ0F8

[Arctic Dave]

1. It always amazes me that when we kill innocent people it's always an "oops, my bad"

but never a crime. However, when someone else does it, it's an atrocity.

[saigon68]

4. Lots of War Criminals getting a "Free Ride"

[naaman fletcher]

5. IF you accept the validity of a military action,

You have to accept that there will be civilians killed. It has happened in every single war ever fought.

Now, if you don't see the moral difference between taking large precautions against killing civilians, and yet it still occasionally happens, verses the intentional targeting of civilians, then I would suggest that you have a very warped sense of morality.

None of this is to say that the war in Iraq or Afghanistan is just or moral.

[Xipe Totec]

2. I'm sure the dead Afghanis will be relieved to hear this n/t

[Flaneur]

3. That "appropriate" airstrike killed at least 83 civilians listed by Amnesty Intl.

You can read their names and villages here:

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2009/10/30/amnesty-international-lists-83-afghan-civilians-killed-in-nato-airstrike-in-kunduz.html