Recent administration claims about the US ‘starting over’ in Afghanistan and adopting a “new” strategy which shouldn’t be judged by the last eight years of failures came to a screeching halt this morning when a US jet attacked a pair of hijacked fuel tankers that were surrounded by civilians, killing at least 95.
Despite General Stanley McChrystal’s claims that the military would stop emphasizing attacks on the Taliban in favor of improving the lives of the nation’s civilians and protecting them from harm, the temptation to lob a missile into a village, even knowing it would cause a massive fireball when it hit the fuel tankers, was too great to resist.
NATO confirmed the strike but insisted steps were taken to ensure that no civilians were in the area before the attack. Yet local officials say mostly civilians were slain in the strike, and NATO is promising an investigation into the incident. Likewise, the White House failed to concede anything about the strike, but express “regret” in the event civilians had been killed.
Such events are all too common in Afghanistan, and from the blanket denials to the promises of investigations (which invariably take weeks and resolve little) to the “regrets” it seems little has changed. Materially the same incident happened in Farah in May (shortly after the last Obama Administration announced “new” strategy), and in August of 2008 in Herat (just before the Bush Administration’s “new” strategy announcement).
The only thing that’s changed is that there are far more soldiers on the ground, the Taliban has a far greater presence, and the number of people getting killed in the average day is much higher. Though Defense Secretary Robert Gates insists the newest strategy is “working,” all it seems to be accomplishing is killing more civilians. If that’s all it took to win in Afghanistan, the US would’ve won years ago.
New strategy again, whcvh involves more innocent deaths, according to gates it is working ,
if it did, the war would have been won year ago.
USA would rather keep going making disaster than admitting the fact that Afghanistan is a losing battle.
Obushma.
Time after time after time America and its military have expressed their utter contempt for the lives of civilians in non-lily-white, non christian nations. Redskins. Niggers. Gooks. Sandniggers. Ragheads.____In Afghanistan while the Americans prattle on about winning 'hearts and minds' (although we all know it's all about pipelines, not lifelines) weddings and funerals get bombed by remote control, populated homes are blown up, villagers exterminated. Then some military jerk says 'Whoops, it won't happen again'. Then it happens again. And again. And again.____With that kind of attitude, America could have 500,000 troops on the ground and they still can't win. Or learn.
My feeling is that the Afghan and Pakistan war, especially in South of Afghanistan as in Pakistan Swat region, are entering this time into a decisive ethnic cleansing and murder operation for territory grab, pure and simple, this time systematically. Could be. War must end fast with NATO and US "victory." Let's reduce, indeed eliminate, the population. With systematic massive killing of civilians. No (real) coverage but systematic cover-up and propaganda lies for the populace back home. We could be in the middle of a dramatic, tragic turning point for the Afghan and Pakistani people. Time will tell. For the Afghans and Pakistani, I hope I'm wrong. They're facing cruel, brutal and powerful plunderers – and overfed parasites and agressors too… which could be, seems to be, and advantage for the resistance on the terrain… Silly wars, anyway!