When President Obama began publicly opposing calls for an international investigation into this month’s US attack on a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, he and other officials started hyping the internal Pentagon report, with pledges of a quick and reliable inquiry, that involved smashing up the already bombed hospital even more.
Today, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that the preliminary version of the report, which was supposed to come out this week, is “taking longer than expected,” and is being delayed until an unspecified future date.
MSF has been harshly critical of the attack, saying it is a presumptive war crime and requires a credible, independent investigation. They revealed today that the death toll has risen to 25 killed, with another staff member and two more patients having succumbed to injuries sustained in the strike.
The Pentagon has offered myriad, often contradictory, claims about the strike, claiming US troops were under attack, then Afghan troops, then potentially nobody at all, and insisting the attack was a mistake but also deliberate, and confirming that the hospital was known to be a hospital and was not supposed to be attacked.
All the contradictions had been shrugged off on the grounds that a report was coming “soon” that would clarify things, but officials seem to be struggling to get together a remotely plausible excuse, and have decided to just stonewall as long as possible.
They need more time to concoct lies to rationalize the slaughter.
It takes time to cut through a welter of bullshit. That's why it's generally a good idea that the consumers have to do it, rather than the producers. You don't walk away from a 'decipherment' exercise like that with much credibility intact. Even if you do eventually get it all right.
Oct. 3, 2015 AFGHANISTAN: Hospital bombing death toll at 16, 3 children THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP)—The international charity Doctors Without Borders said at least 16 people including nine local staffers were killed when its clinic came under “sustained bombing” Saturday in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, where Afghan officials said helicopter gunships had returned fire from Taliban fighters sheltering in the facility.
http://www.pe.com/articles/afghanistan-782423-dea…
Oct 5, 2015 U.S. Bombs Hospital In Afghanistan Killing 23
A nurse with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) who survived Saturday's hour-long bombing of an Afghan hospital is speaking out about the scene he called "absolutely terrifying."
https://youtu.be/rMWNvcdb2jA
OCTOBER 23, 2015 U.S. Claims $5 Billion Intelligence System “Offline” At Time Of Afghan Hospital Bombing
Apparently any time something happens that calls into question the nobility of the U.S. mission to protect the planet, you can chalk it up to a coincidental intelligence “systems failure” … 9/11, no WMDs in Iraq, ISIS appearing out of nowhere…. It’s an old tactic that dates back much further, but continues to be recycled nonetheless.
http://phys.org/news/2015-10-army-intelligence-ho…
In order to sustain the fragile facade of the Afghan state, it is essential that the Afghans doing the actual fighting know that they are being and will be supported. Morale must be extremely low when the soldiers/militia/police see all the white Westerners going home saying it's over. This means immediate, direct, decisive action must be taken, for example the bombardment of the hospital, whenever and where ever the Afghan fighters feel threatened. Just how the report will justify that I can't imagine. I'm not surprised it's taking them a bit of time to think up the excuse. We all know that the only way to avoid this dilemma is to abandon Afghanistan entirely and leave it to the Taliban or the Islamic State. However Obama has halted the withdrawal instead of speeding it up. I await with fascination the next episode in this saga.
As usual the Nobel Peace Prize winner and his minions prove that they are unable to ever speak the truth.