Another of the night raids that Gen. Stanley McChrystal has repeatedly promised to curb has gone awry, and sparked violent protests across the Logar Province of Afghanistan today, after it was revealed that the raid killed three innocent civilians.
The initial NATO report alleged that they had arrested a confessed “Taliban sub-commander” and killed three “insurgents” in the raid. As the protests grew over the morning relatives insisted that all those killed were actually civilians.
But local tribesmen wasted no time taking to the streets in protest, blocking roads and eventually turning on a NATO supply convoy that attempted to pass. At least 15 trucks, including several fuel tankers, were reported destroyed as the crowd shot at them. Reports say that some also threw firebombs or hand grenades at the trucks.
Though NATO killing civilians and labeling them insurgents is nothing new, and that wasn’t even the first time it had happened this week, locals seem to be increasingly discontented with the business-as-usual of NATO killing their neighbors and chalking it up to “insurgency,” and the violent protests will likely only continue to grow as such incidents continue to occur.
When up to one's ass in alligators it is difficult to remember the original intention was to drain the swamp.
Draining the swamp was not the original US intent. That was the pretext.
'But local tribesmen wasted no time' That would be local Afghan citizens. Looks like the sooner we get out, the better.
I really wish you would — get out.
Now the real fun begins.
When the Afghans realise how easy it is to attack NATO supply convoys lots of American dollars will go up in smoke
The Afhgans have known their logistics for millennia.
Many of the tribes are just having fun.
They haven't had anyone to fight and drive out since the Soviets.
Why rush?
So true.
However the sooner NATO, The USA and the others leave – then the sooner they will ,hopefully, be left in peace.
I really enjoy E.A. Costa's comments.. As anyone who has traveled the Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan area knows or should know, Afghanistan is DIFFERENT, because the people are VERY different.. They have a real sense of themselves, but not in an egotistic way. They are extremely independent and lets not forget, given a choice of robbing the invaders and then kicking them out, or just kicking them out, they will prefer the former.
Those ungrateful Afghans. We bring them the blessing of democracy and this is how they repay us. Thanks to our brave men they can now enjoy midnight police raids and brutality and someday they might even aspire to an incarceration rate as great as our own once they start following our example and making almost everything illegal.
We can only hope someone will provide them with REAL weapons, (like the Am. did when they were fighting the soviets), then the real war will begin.
I hope to live long enough to see the Afgans butcher the Pakis for their treachery.
Joe, they are all Pashtunes, and Pakistan has not been all that treacherous to them.. They all want their share of the invaders booty…
"booty:… He he… He said, "booty".
People who live in glass logistics houses shouldn't kill civilians indiscriminately.
Yeah, america has come exactly to the right place to have it's empire die. Thank You for Your diligence and courage, Jason.
mark aleshnick,
Okinawa, Japan
MvGuy, the people of wazeristan(borderlands of Pak.) are Pashtune. They were never conquered by the Pak. Its these people that the Pakis. are now attacking at the behest of Am.
Absolutely amazing. The American way of studying history and geography. Go and make war in a faraway place that Americans know nothing about. Then gradually, as American moron grunts get sacrificed for the benefit of political and corporate profits, Americans learn about the Pashtuns, 12 million in Afghanistan(40% of Afghans) and 24 million in Pakistan, learn that the Taliban are Pashtun, learn about the militarily-impossible-for-modern-warmakers-but-"briar patch"-friendly-for-the-local-fighters terrain. They learn that the AfPak border (the Durand line) cuts right through the Pashtun tribal area("Pashtunistan") and that Pashtuns treat the border the way you or I would treat an un-policed line drawn through our living room. They learn that war on the Afghan Pashtuns is war on all the Pashtuns, so that war on Afghanistan inescapably means war on Pakistan as well. We learn that Pakistan is a politically fragile *****NUCLEAR***** power, with a fractious and diverse, entirely Muslim population of 190 MILLION!!!! dominated by Punjabis. They learn that the Pashtun region of Pakistan, referred to as the Federally Administered Tribal Area, has always been largely autonomous BECAUSE IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN UNGOVERNABLE, and has never been dominated by Pakistan's Punjabi majority because the Pashtuns wouldn't allow it, being more independent, more fierce, more stubborn, and just as skilled at warfare on their own turf and terms as the Vietnamese (the last American clusterf**k war-for-profit history/geography lesson).
So when the lesson is over, what have Americans learned? Everything you never wanted to know about some remote hornet's nest on the other side of the world, and everything you should never have forgotten about the enthusiasm of the US political and corporate elite to loot the US treasury and to throw young, brainwashed American men and women into the war-for-profit meat grinder.
Saddam was more honest. He only threw his enemies into the meat grinder.
Well said!
Saddam who? Oh, yeah… that's the dude who got shuttled off to do that rope dance before he could upset the Americon apple-cart of lies by staying alive. I forgot about him… silly me.