US Airstrikes Kill Scores Of Civilians In Afghanistan

by Jim Fri May 08, 2009 12:32

When opposing forces in any war fight over territory the civilian population in the area are at risk of being killed in the fighting.
The US forces regularly launch air strikes against the Taliban so naturally this is going to happen.
It's very tragic but that is war.

Surely nobody is going to suggest that NATO forces should withdraw and allow the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan again, regoup and topple the government of Pakistan and get their hands on nuclear weapons or allow Al-Qaeda to train terrorist who are sent around the world to fight jihad unmolested?

by anti-war Fri May 08, 2009 14:20

Obama must be forced to eat his own words.
On the 13th August 2007 Senator Barack Obama said in Nashua, NH of the Afghanistan "We've got to get the job done there. And that requires us to have enough troops that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians which is causing enormous problems there."

This was in the context of fierce fighting between NATO and Taliban forces which had resulted in spiralling numbers of dead Western soldiers particularly British troops in Helmand province and dead Afghan civilians.


Now that Bush is no longer in the White House, President Obama has begun to withdraw troops from Iraq leaving behind a pro-US Iraqi government and as I write there is a "surge" in the numbers of US troops deployed to Afghanistan to fight the increasingly powerful Taliban who have re-captured significant areas of Afghanistan while in neighbouring Pakistan another Taliban force is advancing on Karachi endangering the stability of the regional nuclear power.

Today the latest news from Afghanistan is that a villages was air-raided and scores of civilians including many women and children were killed and if reports on the exact number of dead are accurate - about 150 - then this is the single biggest loss of life at the hands of the US forces since the begining of the latest Afghan conflict which began immediately following the 9/11 attacks.

Whether the deaths were due to targetting errors, whether the Taliban used women and children as human shields, whether the dead were killed in other incidents and the exact toll is in fact "overexaggerated" according to US Air Forces is missing the point.

When Senator Obama criticised the Bush administration's war policies - the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime, the overthrow of the Taliban and the wider war against Al-Qaeda which he claimed had alienated the world from the US, he continually cited the thousands of civilian deaths that occured as a result of US firepower which would fuel further terrorism.

Surely the continuation of US air strikes and the death tolls from other air strikes since the commencement of President Obama's administration clearly demonstrate his hollow rhetoric?

Senator Obama criticises the war policies of the Bush administration in Afghanistan.

by Yel Sat May 09, 2009 16:42

Say what you like about American imperialism, if Afghanistan and Pakistan fall to Islamic fundamentalists we all face a nightmare.
Pakistan's nuclear arms would fall into their hands.
War, nuclear war, between Pakistan and India would be serious possibility.
How would a Sunni Islamic fundamentalist regime in Pakistan co-exist with Shia fundamentalist Iran?
How many more Islamic fundamentalist extremists from around the world travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan to train and fight and would return to other parts of the Middle East and to Europe to spread jihad against the infidel West using Muslim communities already sympathetic to Sharia rule rather than democracy as a base?

It is terrible that so many civilians are being killed when the US bombs Taliban controlled towns and villages.

It would be far worse if Taliban control extends over the entire region and influence of backward Islamic lunacy is strengthened.

by Bazooka Joe Sun May 10, 2009 13:29

It appears Obama intends to continue, if not step up, the murder in Afghanistan. I am not surprised. It was always clear that he was simply a glove puppet for the American Elite who allowed him to take the Presidency. Just a PR trick to make the world think America had changed. It has not. It is still an evil monster who kills women and children and only shows remorse for the cameras when there is a public outcry.

Initially the US said the Taliban had run through the village throwing grenades but later admitted that this was a lie.

Yel refers to 'Islamic Lunacy' and says it is better to kill women and children than to have Islamic law in that region. 'Better dead than Red', eh? I would sooner see my mother or sister being forced into a Burka than being blown to bits by terrorists in jets. If Yel thinks Islam is 'lunacy' then what is it to invade a country with the help of the worst criminals in that country and kill innocent people? Doing so because you have a 'nightmare' and are driven to it by a combination of neurosis and greed is what is lunacy. America is out of control. A crazed bully. A dangerous bully. Predictable only in that we can be sure it will continue to kill and maim. Predictable also in its assured ultimate destruction.

People don't have to go to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, Chechnya, Indonesia, or any other country to learn how to fight evil empires like the US and Israel. People in every area of the world are continually appaled by the US and it's pups and that is most of the training anybody needs. Where there is a will there is a way. You don't need to be a commando to bring down and empire you know. You don't even need to know how to fly a 747.

by Fred Johnston Mon May 11, 2009 14:21

Has it occurred to anyone that now that Shannon has been given by us to the US military as a permanent base, we are complicit in the killings of civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan? Why has Shannon gone off the map as a serious issue?

by ronan Mon May 11, 2009 18:28

I would have thought that Irish government complicity in US war crimes would have occurred to many indymedia readers Fred ,but the fact that soldiers are flying out to murder people in Afghanistan from Aldergrove Airport , which is also in Ireland , is often forgotten – even by some anti-war activists .

by Yel Tue May 12, 2009 14:35

The massive numbers of troops flowing through Shannon en route to Iraq in 2003 was not hampered by the activities of anti-war activists.

After the invasion and the commencement of the military occupation hundreds of thousands of troops passed through Shannon when serving units rotated back home and were replaced by fresh units while fighting by the insurgency intensified.

During the surge of troops ordered toward the end of the Bush administration thousands more passed through Shannon to bulk up American manpower against the insurgency.

Meanwhile the American presence in Afghanistan since 2001 has continued in parallel.

Now as Obama begins the withdrawl of US troops, having completed the establishment of a pro-US government in Iraq, his attention has switched to Afghanistan which is now experiencing a surge in US troops numbers.

The pitiful results of inept anti-war activist leadership has led to the unimpeded use of Shannon.

The entire campaign has been a complete and absolute and total failure.

by Mel Tue May 12, 2009 15:05

"Now as Obama begins the withdrawl of US troops, having completed the establishment of a pro-US government in Iraq, his attention has switched to Afghanistan which is now experiencing a surge in US troops numbers."

Don't kid yourself, mate - the Maliki government in Iraq only has credibility (insofar as it has any) with the Iraqi people because it is not seen as a puppet of Washington, unlike its predecessors - Maliki won some kudos for facing down the US over the Status of Forces Agreement and forcing it to make major concessions. Patrick Cockburn is one of the few western reporters who bothers to go outside the Green Zone in Iraq: he gives a very good account of the real political dynamics at work behind the silly hype of the US government:

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v30/n24/cock01_.html

http://www.irishleftreview.org/2009/02/10/present-state...burn/