U.S. admits Afghan airstrike may have killed 86 civilians

[Duer 157099]

Source: mcclatchydc.com

An internal military investigation into an U.S. airstrike in western Afghanistan acknowledged that U.S. forces may have killed as many as 86 civilians and said the military needs to re-examine its rules to reduce future civilian casualties.

The report, which suggests that troops need a refresher on how to best use airpower, how to avoid civilian casualties and how to communicate with the Afghan civilians they're being sent to protect, will probably do little to endear the coalition with the Afghans, a cornerstone of the U.S. counterinsurgency plan.

And its issuance raises questions about whether the U.S. should use a B-1B bomber — an expensive Cold War-era supersonic bomber originally designed to penetrate the former Soviet Union's airspace and drop nuclear weapons — to rout out Taliban hiding among Afghan civilians.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/70417.html

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Link to pdf of report:

http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2009/06/19/17/061908farahreport.source.prod_affiliate.91.pdf

[Mari333]

1. the blood is no longer on Bush's hands. nt

[Cali_Democrat]

6. Oh.....the blood is still on Bush's hands

The only thing now is that it's on Obama's hands also.

:puke:

[devastated1981]

12. Actually, Obama could quickly end the UAV strikes if he wanted to. n/t

[pinniped]

2. The Yahoo! story gives a tally of 26 civilians and 78 so-called insurgents dead.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090620/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_afghanistan

WASHINGTON – A U.S. warplane failed to follow all operational rules in a complex battle in Afghanistan last month that killed an estimated 26 civilians and 78 Taliban fighters, the U.S. military concluded in a report released Friday.

Local Afghan officials have said as many as 140 people were killed.

By a wide margin, the reported civilian casualties are always suspiciously lower that of the so-called insurgents. It's never the other way around.

I'm not surprised they're using the expensive B1-B bomber. I guess they don't want cobb webs to grow on that thing.

When are the Trident subs going to roll around?

[frog92969]

3. I'm so glad they're not "protecting" us

:sarcasm: x2

[Downwinder]

5. They might be coming home some day. n/t

[Downwinder]

4. Sounds to me like Congressional Committees

should start quizzing people on knowledge of the Geneva Conventions before they promote them to General officers.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

7. How is this different than Bush? n/t

[earcandle]

8. oh my

[KakistocracyHater]

9. shift to all-food/supplies airdrops instead of expensive bombs

& try not to drop the packages on people or animals. It's total foolishness to continue with this nonsense, they cannot even build the equivalent of a city-state, like Ancient Athens or Sparta-what does that say about these "operations"? Failure to return to normal standards, even with modern building equipment, speaks tremendously about the true aims of those running this endless mess.

I don't want Pakistan to turn into the Iraq of the 2010s, either. The further away it is for the people "building" & repairing, & the fact that too many of them are NOT natives to the area, human nature predicts little real concern, it's not their home, not their country, they'll fly away. The natives though are stuck.

[winyanstaz]

10. More deaths...more innocents blown to pieces and for what??????

This is just more of the same insanity. This is NOT change I can believe in.

[Prometheus Bound]

11. Video of the destruction and survivors

http://www.rawa.org/temp/runews/2009/05/09/tour-with-tears-in-afghan-bombed-village.html

[chill_wind]

13. Horrible graphic photos linked at that site

from other dates, also. These wars would be over if these made the covers of every weekly magazine just a few weeks in a row. Or if they showed them every morning instead of the stupid Joe and Mika.

A lot of self-censorship by US media on this for YEARS. And we didn't even need an act of Congress to suppress them.

[Prometheus Bound]

14. Very good points indeed.