Saturday’s US airstrike against a Doctors Without Borders hospital on the outskirts of Kunduz has become a major controversy for US officials in the days that followed, with US commander Gen. John Campbell admitting Monday that previous claims that US troops had come under attack were false.
Rather, Campbell says that the Afghan military had requested the airstrike against the hospital, an attack which killed 22 people, including 12 members of the Doctors Without Borders staff. Campbell did not address previous claims the stirke was “an accident.”
Doctors Without Borders lashed the latest comments, saying they were an attempt by the US to pass responsibility for the attack, saying that the US dropped the bombs and thus remains responsible for the targets it hits, no matter who asked them to hit them.
The Afghan government has been defending the attack, with the Kunduz governor claiming the hospital was “a Taliban base” and the Defense Ministry labeling the slain hospital workers and patients as “armed terrorists.”
The Taliban captured Kunduz itself a week ago, and fighting is ongoing in the area to try to reclaim the city. Yet the focus on attacking a hospital, and ultimately forcing Doctors Without Borders to close the facility, suggests the Afghan government may believe the battle is a losing one, and is simply trying to reduce the value of the area by damaging key infrastructure.
so the us military is admitting that it was a deliberate strike.
From a lie until Monday to a Pontius Pilate on Monday: "the Afghans ordered us to do it".
By now our Commander in Chief knows exactly who gave the attack order and knows exactly how that order was worded. Why does he not tell us? The buck is supposed to stop at his desk. He may not remember that he has a desk.
The drafters of the Geneva Convention on warfare knew very well that there will always be false claims for attacks such as German soldiers dressed in Polish military uniforms taking a German radio station. "The Afghans asked us to bomb that hospital" without making first sure that there were non-injured non-protected persons in that hospital is a war crime. Rumors are not accepted as fact by that Convention.
Mr. President, if you have any decency left you must now tell us also whether a red cross on a white background was painted on the roof of that hospital. Or if the hospital flew the red cross flag. If you do not know, give a call to one of the surviving doctors or nurses. They know.
"The Afghan told them to "Rich, I thought the"I was only following orders" excuse went out with the Nuremberg Trials and the only Country still bombing UN facilities, Hospitals, Kindergarten and Schools are the Israeli warmongers.
You're right, maybe they should now pardon those Nazi war criminals
after all they were just "following orders."
US command was obviously out of control in frustration over the loss of Kunduz, pretty much by abdication of the alleged Afghan police and military, so every absurd effort to keep them in the fight was going to be exercised. Nothing fails like failure.
Did anyone notice that just a few weeks ago the bright idea on how we could use 'the rebels' in Syria was to give them radios and let them call in airstrikes. Of course, the problem with that is that you are trusting the morals and judgement of that person in picking the targets. And of course the US pretends that its not involved despite the fact that they are the ones letting these people call in air strikes. If you think this is bad, just wait till we hand out radios to Al Qaida in Syria and put them in charge of whom US airpower blows up. And when they blow up something awful, don't let the people who gave them the authority and the radios pretend its not their fault
"Campbell says that the Afghan military had requested the airstrike"
Aren't these airstrikes first cleared up with the chain of command? Are we really at "we are bombing random shit in this city that someone over the radio tells us to bomb". A likely story.
Jason, Nice to read this article about the issue raised due to this airstrike against the militants. The US troops should need to investigate the matter before they are going to make any airstrike, so that they will have enough explanation for in their favor.