Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has issued a statement in Afghanistan criticizing the US for its “sorry money” payments to the victims of American attacks on an MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan late last year, saying the payments were ridiculous and not compensatory for the loss of lives.
The US had previously had a precedent of paying $50,000 “blood money” each when US forced killed Afghan civilians during the occupation, but the victims of the MSF attack were given $6,000 and told it was a “condolence payment,” not the typical blood money. The Pentagon has also suggested some sort of compensation for all the employees at the hospital, whether they were wounded or not.
For some reason, Pentagon officials are keen to make a distinction between their previous “blood money” payments and those for the MSF hospital, which they insist are smaller because they’re just meant to help cover funeral costs, not as a formal blood money compensation.
The US has struggled to explain the attack on the hospital, offering several conflicting excuses on how the strike happened, and finally settling on the idea that it was a “mistake” that shouldn’t have happened. President Obama has blocked MSF calls for an international investigation.
The most dangerous thing that all governments fear is the truth. They will go to extreme lengths to make sure the little people never know what their governments are doing in their names. And these same governments will be the ones to write the histories – which is why Dubya wasn’t concerned with what was surely going to be said about his term as Emperor.
Nevertheless, plenty of contemporaneous documentation exists about Dubya’s war crimes. His term as Emperor will be remembered with all the respect of that of Caligula.
Because of Obama’s continuation – and worsening – of Dubya’s illegalities, he’ll be remembered with less respect than Incitatus.