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KoKo

(84,711 posts)
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 03:11 PM Nov 2013

Happy Thanksgiving in Afghanistan: US Drone Strike kills Child and Leaves Two Adult Women Injured

Thanksgiving in Afghanistan: Drone Strike, Dead Child
Anger erupts after Thursday drone attack leaves civilians dead and injured
- Jon Queally, staff writer



Hamid Karzai has condemned the air strike that killed a child. As most Americans sat down to eat a large Thanksgiving feast on Thursday, a U.S. drone attack in Afghanistan left one child dead and two adult women injured as NATO forces claimed they were trying to kill a lone "known militant" riding on a motorbike in Helmand Province.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai expressed outrage. The latest incident of civilian casualties comes as the Obama administration and Karzai government try to settle on terms for a Bilateral Security Agreement designed to lay out the conditions for the continued presence of U.S. military forces in the country after 2014.

Following news of the latest attack and the death of the Afghan child killed by the missile strike, Karzai said, "For as long as such arbitrary acts and oppression of foreign forces continue, the security agreement with the United States will not be signed.”

“This attack shows that American forces are not respecting the life and safety of Afghan people’s houses,” he continued. “For years, our innocent people have become victims of the war under the name of terrorism, and they have had no safety in their homes.”



According to the New York Times, a high-ranking US military commander called Karzai later Thursday to acknowledge the incident:

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, made a late-night phone call to President Karzai on Thursday after the president’s criticism became public. “He talked to President Karzai directly, expressed deep regrets for the incident and any civilian casualties, and promised to convene an immediate joint investigation to determine all the facts of what happened,” a coalition spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official policy.

Mr. Karzai vowed this week, at the conclusion of a loya jirga, or grand council, that he would cancel the security agreement completely if there was even one more raid that killed civilians.


Responding to the latest development, journalist Glenn Greenwald tweeted:



Glenn Greenwald ✔ @ggreenwald Follow

It seems continuing to kill a country's civilians with drones doesn't help in getting them to agree you can stay http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/29/world/asia/afghan-leader-lashes-out-at-us-allies-after-nato-drone-strike.html?hpw&rref=world
7:18 AM - 29 Nov 2013


And Jason Ditz at Anti-War.com added:


There’s never really a good time to blow up a house-load of civilians, but the Obama Administration seems to find particularly inopportune times to do so, following up a week-long battle with Afghan President Hamid Karzai over extending their occupation by blowing up a home, killing two women and a child within.

President Karzai was quick to condemn the strike is indicative of the US willingness to needlessly endanger civilians in the 12-plus year war, saying he would definitely not sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) unless such strikes stop.

The US has been demanding Karzai sign the BSA by the end of the year, threatening to withdraw if he refuses and even trying to find ways to get it into effect without the Afghan president’s signature.

Karzai, whose final term in office ends in April, insists that the deal should wait until then, and has pressed the US for more concessions, including ending night raids on Afghan civilian homes and releasing Afghan citizens from Guantanamo Bay, as conditions for an early signature. The drone strike just adds one more thing to the list, since apparently the Obama Administration needs it to be spelled out in writing that they’re not allowed to blow up homes.


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/29

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bvar22

(39,909 posts)
3. Hamid Karzai is one of the worst criminals in the World,
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 03:39 PM
Nov 2013

.....but I join with him today in condemning this latest outrage.


Our government is out of control.
The Social Safety Net is being shredded,
but the Military has enough taxpayer dollars to lob Million Dollar Missiles they can use [font size=3]"trying to kill a lone "known militant" riding on a motorbike"[/font]
in a country that has already been bombed back to the Stone Age
and poses absolutely NO THREAT to the USA.

This is unacceptable no matter WHO sits in the White House.





truedelphi

(32,324 posts)
11. That's about it, isn't it...
Sat Nov 30, 2013, 06:01 AM
Nov 2013

And the useless Endless Wars' Democrats keep right on keeping on. (Patented Copyright trademark of the Democrats of the New Era of America's Bloodbath Imperialism)

 

DesMoinesDem

(1,569 posts)
5. This title will get you more replies: Poor drone pilots forced to work on Thanksgiving.
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 03:49 PM
Nov 2013

Not many people here seem to care when Obama kills innocent people with drones.

warrant46

(2,205 posts)
6. It's time to shut the Door on this Manure Pile
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 03:55 PM
Nov 2013

Who will be the last to die for these crooks.

As soon as they pay Karzai a few Billion more to put in his Swiss Bank account

Everything will be O. K. He is after all, the CIAs man in Kabul

Holly_Hobby

(3,033 posts)
7. And yet, Obama was pardoning turkeys for cryin' out loud
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 04:54 PM
Nov 2013

Something is very very wrong when a turkey's life is more important than innocent humans. What a contradiction. I do understand it's symbolic, but come on. Saving turkeys one day and blowing away a child the next?

 

Comrade Grumpy

(13,184 posts)
9. It's almost as if the US is trying to blow up the troop deal on purpose. I hope it works.
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 05:09 PM
Nov 2013

I really hope Karzai sticks to his guns and throws out the foreign invaders once and for all.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
10. They did it with Iraq and it worked...but this would seem to be something different..
Fri Nov 29, 2013, 08:13 PM
Nov 2013

I had high hopes we'd be out of there... I wonder what the internal fights for turf would be about with this.

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