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US Massacres Afghan Kids
by Robert Dreyfuss
Contributing Editor
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/349287
So how, exactly, did the United States come to slaughter nearly a hundred
Afghans, two-thirds of whom were children aged three months to sixteen years,
while they slept? And what does it mean?
US officials say they're investigating, while staunchly maintaining that the
raid killed twenty-five "militants." But Afghan officials, local residents, and
the United Nations are counting scores of bodies, and it is feared that many
more might be buried udner the rubble. (It's not unusual for American planes to
bomb civilian gatherings and wedding parties in Afghanistan, but the many dead
this time may represent the highest single toll in any atrocity since the start
of the war.)
What happened? The Post, happily carrying water for the Bush administration,
quotes a US official -- who provides zero evidence for his claim -- saying that
the Taliban deliberately fed bogus intelligence to the United States:
A U.S. official in Washington, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the
Taliban has become adept at spreading false intelligence to draw U.S. strikes
on civilians. "The fact is that the Taliban now has pretty good insight into
where we're picking up information and how we're developing it into actionable
intelligence," the official said. "They've figured out a way to misguide us."
The Times, on the other hand, quotes members of the Afghan parliament saying
that bitter tribal rivalries, not the Taliban, fed false intelligence to the
trigger-happy US Air Force:
How the military came to call in airstrikes on a civilian gathering is unclear.
Two members of Parliament, Mr. Safi and Maulavi Gul Ahmad, who is from the
area, said the villagers blamed tribal enemies for giving the military false
intelligence on foreign fighters gathering in the village.
My own guess is that US intelligence in Afghanistan is so ridiculously bad that
blaming either the Taliban (which isn't that clever) or tribal rivalries won't
wash. Somewhere, a US Air Force commander ordered planes carrying dumb,
2000-pound bombs into action based on, well, pretty much nothing. And they've
done that repeatedly.
The Guardian says that the death of the sixty children and other civilians is
the "final straw" for the government of Hamid Karzai. We'll see. Karzai fired
two top Afghan army commanders for their role in the attack, and he says he
will demand a status-of-forces agreement with the United States that will
provide greater Afghan control over the US bombing campaign. Meanwhile the
entire country is in an uproar, and there are demonstrations against the United
States. According to Xinhua, "The gruesome incident prompted hundreds of
Afghans in the affected area to take to the streets, chanting anti-America
slogans." In other words, rather than killing dozens of Taliban, the attack may
have created scores of recruits for the movement.
By all rights, this ought to be a turning point for the Afghan war. The
solution? It has two parts: first, the new government in Pakistan has to chip
away at the Taliban bases in that country, and cut off the covert ties between
subversive Pakistani military officials and the Islamic fundamentalists among
the Pashtun in both countries, and second, the United States and NATO should
get out and let the regional powers help Afghanistan deal with its
problems--that means Pakistan, India, Russia, and Iran.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/349287__._,_.___
"Unless we embrace 'TRUTH' and recognize 'EVIL', we will find NO Resolutions
to 'PEACE".......
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