Following Criticism of Civilian Deaths, US Pulls Funding for Afghan ‘Media Center’

US Embassy Insists Move a Coincidence

The timing was so perfect it would make your head swim. An Afghan government fact-finding team held a press conference Saturday at the US-subsidized Afghan Government Media and Information Center criticizing NATO for killing civilians, and immediately thereafter the US Embassy announced all the funding for the center would be pulled.

The embassy is insisting its entirely a coincidence, and that they had been “considering” the move for quite some time. They also withdraw all US embassy personnel from the site of the center following the press conference.

The fact-finding team reported that NATO had caused a number of “unnecessary” civilian deaths over the past few weeks, adding that NATO often killed civilians for no conceivable reason, attacking and killing a child for climbing a tree and attacking civilians transporting a water-pump then claiming they thought it was a cannon.

They warned that NATO’s often brutal behavior was causing a growing backlash among the public, noting that one of the wounded survivors from an attack in Kandahar said his sister wants to become a suicide bomber now.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.