NATO reviews Afghan tactics to cut civilian deaths

[denverbill]

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
NATO is looking at its tactics in
Afghanistan to reduce civilian casualties, which have prompted protests from President Hamid Karzai, the alliance's top commander said on Friday.

<snip>
Craddock said NATO forces faced difficult choices, particularly if they came under attack. Insurgents could take refuge in buildings and NATO commanders had to decide whether to launch air strikes which would kill enemy forces but also risked civilian casualties.

"This is imperfect. If you haven't ever done it, you don't understand the fog and the friction," he said.


Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070518/ts_nm/nato_afghan_dc_2;_ylt=AsiHC2lkYJQlLniO3LJnpHwE1vAI

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No shit Sherlock? You're an Army guy. You're paid to kill enemy soldiers and protect your own men, so you have a tendency to blow up buildings first and ask questions later.

Trouble is, you aren't fighting an army, you are fighting criminals. If a criminal runs into a bank and takes hostages, do police in the US call in a fucking airstrike?

Jesus, when David Koresh and his followers, many of whom were innocents, were killed in a attempt to capture them, there was hell to pay in the US.

You are going to have to learn that if we are going to win this war, your primary objective has to be to protect civilians first and the troops second. You may have to let some bad guys get away occasionally and you are going to have to live with the fact that you are going to have to accept higher US troop casualties, because every dead civilian creates 10 new anti-American fanatics.