Usually when militaries change their official story about killing civilians it is designed to explain away innocent deaths as an accident. Today, however, NATO took the exact opposite approach with Sunday’s Marjah killings, revising their story to insist the killings were not an equipment error, but were part of a deliberate US targeting of a house full of civilians.
The initial story on Sunday was that the US troops tried to fire the rockets at suspected militants resisting the US-led invasion of the town. NATO claimed the rocket malfunctioned and veered 300 meters off course, destroying a house full of women and children.
The claims led to NATO announcing that the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HiMARS) responsible for firing the missiles would be suspended from use pending further review.
The review didn’t take long, however, as NATO announced today that the HiMARS did not malfunction, and the missile hit the house deliberately. Officials are now suggesting that there may have been militants in or near the house, though there appears to be no evidence of that and only civilians were killed in the house’s destruction.
NATO has promised to curb the number of air strikes against houses in Marjah in an attempt to reduce the number of civilians it kills in the invasion. Readers will recall that NATO urged civilians not to flee before the invasion. Three more civilians were reported killed today around Marjah, however, suggesting that as the offensive drags on civilians will continue to face danger.
we can not have a new Weapon System fail. That would not be good for Corporate profits.
How can we know if they are lying..?? Are their lips moving..??
The plan to make the world so frightened will not work out for the U.S. and their [Germany AGAIN..!?!?!] NATO Lackeys, than it did for the Germans Italy and Japan….. Weak broken empires need to re focus, not scatter what petty vestige of their wealth and honor they have left on never ending no win wars against nonentities which their clever adversaries foment. America is doomed..!!
With much respect for anti-war sentiment, I'm thankful it wasn't an errant hit. A single civilian death is tragic but unavoidable in such a situation as this where the cowardly Taliban are using civilians as human shields. It is perhaps arguable whether these farmers will be better off under Taliban control or Afghan governement control. The elders seem to support this offense with a plea of caution. One should not overlook the fact that NATO could easily level these compounds and that would be the end of the Taliban in Marjah if that were their intent or prudent thing to do. It is not. I have to tip my hat to the soldiers that refrain from shooting at civilian occupied compounds while being shot at from behind these civilians.
LOL! What you lack in critical thinking skills and moral competency, you almost make up for in entertainment value!
Ok, here's a little moral quiz for you statist apologists out there like "CincyTom":
You go into a bank, pull a gun and demand money. A cop happens to be in the bank, and tries to stop you…a shootout ensues, and a "civilian", i.e., bank customer, happens to get caught in the crossfire and dies of his wounds. Later, it's determined that the bullet that struck the customer actually came from the cop's gun.
Who's morally responsible for the death of the customer?
Why do certain "progressives" and "liberals" and "anti-war pacifists" always result to name calling and insults with people that don't agree with their lock-step way of thinking. Many of the posters on this site lack basic civility and are so full of their own hate filled beliefs and frankly full of themselves its hard to even take parts of the "anti-war" movement serious when they are so far out of the mainstream of thinking and acting?
Critical thinking skills and moral competency is not the signular domain of the anti-war crowd. In fact far from it.
Firstly, if I have to have a "label", for those of you whose pathetic attempts to understand the world around you require it, I'm more of a "conservative" than anything else.
Second, I find it laughably absurd and ironic that someone who defends statist violence and/or fellow statists, as you appear to be doing, should accuse anyone taking an opposite position as being "hate filled". LOL! But I suppose that's the way it is when your "moral" competency ends at "might-makes-right".
Why should anyone defending statist violence be taken seriously? You defend what in essence is nothing but senseless mass murder, and then demand to be treated with"civility"?
Well here's some well deserved "civility" for you: pull your head out your ass and get some air.
Pointless. Perhaps you need less air, the stuff your breathing seems not to be getting enough oxygen to the cells that need it. Cheers!
Sorry chumpy but I don't generally take advice from people such as yourself who have trouble understanding elementary grammar; that would be "you're" not "your". LOL!
Equally Pointless. This is why you are not well liked in your world.
But to make you happy. Perhaps you need less air, the stuff you're breathing seems not to be getting enough oxygen to the cells that need it. Saha wa'afiab!
Coming from someone of your ilk, I guess I should take that as a compliment. Thanks.
Nelson_2008, I have to admit I was a little confused by your moral quiz. I think it would have made more sense to me if I were simply a bank customer or even a bank security guard, and a bunch of cops from a neighboring town come in and try to rob the bank, I try to stop them, there's a shoot-out and the cops from the other town kill some bank customers or even me.
David, civilians plant wheat, build homes, and raise families. They do not plant IEDs, destroy homes, and hold families hostage.
There is no such thing as a civil(ized) war or a holy war. Would it make anyone feel better if the killings in Marjah were only at the hands of the Taliban?
Amazingly,
You sound like you actually know what you are talking about. We have no business being there. How many more excuses are we going to find to stay in Iraq or Afghanistan? Has it not occured to you that stories change, and enemies morph from one name to another? Do you actually know what "Taliban" is, and how many kinds of "Taliban" exists for our consumption? Our society is full of people who believe in empire fantasies, as the rest of the world is seing it naked for what it is. But remember Christmas Carol, and the Ghost of Christmas Present. Beware the mankinds children, Ignorance and Want. We have become those children. Ignorant and purposefully wanting what we want — regardless of the realities, regardless of price. And ready to justify anything — just anything — to lie to ourselves that we are good and noble. And everybody in this world is inferior and dumb.
Hearing people like you gives me chills.
ZOMG HUMAN SHIELDS!! IT CAST LEAD 2 IRAN MUST HAVE TAUGHT THE TALIBAN THE TECHNIQUE AFTER TEACHING IT TO THE HAMAS!
THOSE DANG MILITANTS AND THEIR HUMAN SHIELDS NOT LIKE WASHINGTON DC WHICH IS INSULATED BY 300 MILLION OF THESE "HUMAN SHIELDS" YOU SPEAK OF.
Bad things happen in war, and they always will. However war endures and our failures are mostly forgotten when the end is achieved.
The psychopaths among us that seek political power and subsequently wreak havoc are relatively small in number and appear to be generally cowardly; thus there's not much evil they can do *by themselves*. What makes them so dangerous is their apparent ability to manipulate and exploit the legions of morally incompetent people, who willingly do their feral bidding.
War "endures" because there are too many small-minded people such as yourself who allow yourselves to be deceived and then make excuses for it.
Yep its too bad we don't have more big minded, morally competent people like you. Oh well I guess the rest of us will just have to get along without more of you. Prosit!
And thanks to you, we are bankrupt. Soon, when you feel it on your own skin, and your children and grandchildren feel it, you will start to look for scapegoats.
Find a mirror, and have a good look at yourself.
Thanks for the laughs, Tom! LMAO at how the War Pigs manage to convince themselves that any and all civillians butchered by the self-proclaimed 'good guys' were being 'used as human shields' – meaning that those who actually dropped the bombs and slaughtered those people have no responsibility for their own actions. I'll never forget how entire families in Lebanon were slaughtered during the last Israeli invasion, and these same War Pigs said the exact same thing, that – with no evidence whatsoever – that all the dead civillians were being 'used as human shields' – so those who killed them weren't responsible. Slick.
God Bless America.
Ditto on the lack of civility …
I'm thinking it's high time for war crime tribunals. Too bad Europe runs 'em.
kill them all let god sort them out
Three cheers for the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization. Today Afghanistan, tomorrow ze vorld! Bomb zem all and make ze vorld safe for peace-loving folks like us!
While I sympathize with those commenters who don't like the name calling, your defense of cold blooded murder tends to tick some people off just a bit. If it was your family that was being used as a human shield, would you still absolve the people who dropped the bombs on them of any responsibility in their deaths? I wouldn't. Especially when those "human shields" were most likely supportive of the efforts of the Taliban to fight the occupiers and invaders of their homeland. Our government and military our the terrorists here, and we are all accessories to the murders if try to justify them with the same old tired "but they are different from us" and "we are morally superior" arguments that have been used by tyrants and oppressors for centuries.
And now our military is proudly stating that they targeted civilians deliberately. I guess they know that most Americans are so close minded and filled with blind nationalism and delusions of grandeur that they will just assume that this is okay. Disgusting.
Robert B Asprey (an historian and marine captain who fought in Vietnam) wrote the genius book War In The Shadows The Guerrilla In History. In it he says "western countries have a long history of hypocrisy in the use of force." He says historically speaking much of what poiticians, generals, and the media call terrorism is actually counter terrorism, a reaction to military terrorism. The writer Charley Reese says 'the way a weapon is delivered does not make it moral many americans are so goofy they believe a bomb dropped from a military plane on civilians is more moral than a terrorist killing civilians with a rifle."
until you show me the battalion of young american kids who all speak pashto and dari then all civilian deaths are intentional
So whats new.
In Fallujah II they built a berm around town, refused to let any males of under 15 years of age leave( in a nation whose averaged male age was around 19), and then proceeded to snipe any male seen in the city.
Fish in a barrel anyone, or do you prefer a Turkey shoot?
In order to keep home flags waving we need to keep our caualties low, so any means of reach out and touch someone without endangering our heros is a much needed tactic.
In a war of occupaiton where your enemy are but mere civilians, civilians armed with but he rudimentary needs of weaponry. Arms that we in US keep in our homes for close up protection of familys; Of course civilains are going to die.
There never was an Afghanistan military to fight during the invasion, as there was almost no militarary to fight .
Euro/centrics are some sick puppys.
Why no mention of other foreign troops, including not just US but many a nations Private militiary forces.__Of course they are called Security Forces, and in one hell of a lot of cases the NGO's are but mere extensions of US military tactics, a Military auxillary of sorts.__Then we have a few thousand Israeli "Trainers'"who work directly with Free Kurdistan forces and who now have their very own military installation within what indeds is shaping up to be a seperate nation, Kurdistan.__One cannot seperate the financial and Industrial entities that are once again adjuncts to US militiary/ political/ tactics .__Warfare today is not just troops, they are there as but entry points, the tear down and occupation forces the blunt instruments that are but preludes to future mitiary/politcal/ finacial actions.__Iraq and Afghansitan are but mere battles, or differing theaters of one vast ongoing planned miltiary conquest.__Never before has any nation had so much of its social, economic, political and military policys been so thouroughly integrated with but one objective of world dominence, and to be able to coerce o5her less powerfull to join them, as has been done by United States of today
Human shields? The War Party has about 300 Million of those. They're typically known by their more common label, American Citizens.
Perhaps “critical thinking” releases one from any morality involved with killing people for no reason. I prefer to retain my emotional revulsion and rejection of murder in all its forms.
No, critical thinking implies critical. The release you speak of is rooted in the primal reptile brain.
I recently saw a bigoted, Islamo-phobic rant that lumped all Muslims together as terrorists on another site. I wondered where are the 200,000 Imperial Islamic storm troopers ravaging the US and NATO nations that have caused that person's bigoted fear. And if there were such an occupation army, would we be justified in planting IEDs? And who would be morally culpable for loss of civilian life, regardless whether the physical bullets came from our own guns or from bombs and rockets rained down by those Imperial Islamic storm troopers?
The inability of so many of my fellow Americans to empathize with other people disgusts me. How I wish there were a God for Obama and Bush to face when they die!
"Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence. Any man who has once proclaimed violence as his method is inevitably forced to take the lie as his principle."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn