14 civilians killed in two NATO airstrikes, Afghan officials say

[The Northerner]

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two NATO airstrikes, one in the north of Afghanistan and one in the south, killed 14 civilians, including a mother and five children, Afghan officials said on Monday.

Word of the latest civilian fatalities came at a sensitive time, just two weeks before a major NATO summit in Chicago. At the gathering, the allies are expected to affirm plans to pull most combat troops out of Afghanistan, while pledging to continue training Afghan forces and providing long-term development aid.

In the past, President Hamid Karzai has strongly denounced the Western military over civilian deaths, although the United Nations and other observers say the bulk of such fatalities are caused by the Taliban.

The most recent deaths were reported in Badghis province, in the country's northwest. Officials said an airstrike on Sunday targeted a group of Taliban fighters, killing three of them -- but also eight civilians.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/05/afghanistan-14-civilians-killed-airstrikes.html


So, more Afghan civilians continue to be slaughtered again and again and yet the onslaught seems to continue without any remorse.

Why?

[Capt. Obvious]

1. A predator drone may strike this thread

dropping link bombs

[Poll_Blind]

2. In a country where every adult male carries a rifle, every group of people is a "defensible" target.

And that's the problem.

It's like we have drones flying over south Florida and the Taliban there wear shorts and sandals: Everyone is potentially a target.

We're doing these strikes at least once a week, sometimes several times a week, and there's very little accountability. Ordinary accountability from US citizens is limited to those who actually track and do follow-up research on such things- it's almost never clear who the targets actually were until someone goes to the target locations and starts picking through the bodies. Accountability requests from the Pakistani/Afghan governments are routinely ignored.

That basically leaves the US military in a situation where they can drop $60k Hellfire missiles on whomever they want without any meaningful kind of oversight.

And the US military likes it that way.

PB

[whatchamacallit]

5. But we're eradicating terror... forever... lol...

[gratuitous]

3. What are they gonna do? Complain about it?

Cause the Afghan people have to know that if they do anything more than complain, we'll do something even battier, shittier and crazier to them than we're doing now. AND we'll paint ourselves as the highly aggrieved victims of their asymmetrical war-like tactics.

[rug]

4. Out.