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Afghan Survivors: Women Waved Scarves to Try to Stop NATO Air Attack

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tekisui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:38 PM
Original message
Afghan Survivors: Women Waved Scarves to Try to Stop NATO Air Attack
Source: Miami Herald/McClatchy News

KABUL -- The military helicopters swooped in from behind the three-vehicle convoy as it wound through a remote road in southern Afghanistan, and survivors of last week's deadly attack said they had no idea they were in danger until the lead four-wheel drive vehicle exploded.

After seeing the gruesome aftermath of that rocket strike, survivors of the NATO attack told McClatchy Newspapers, women jumped from the second car and frantically waved their head scarves to try to stop the attack.


A two-star American general is in southern Afghanistan investigating the Feb. 21 strike, which killed 21 Afghans in Daykundi province and quickly prompted U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal to deliver a videotaped apology.

Survivors said they want more than that, however.

"What do we do with his apology?" said Hussain Dilbarian, a 20-year-old survivor of the strike. "It doesn't make any difference. The killers should be handed over to us. We don't want anything else."

The attack was a frustrating setback for McChrystal in his campaign to win Afghans' confidence by minimizing the number of innocent civilians who are killed by coalition forces fighting Taliban insurgents.

more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/03/03/1511156/afghan-survivors-women-waved-scarves.html
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gateley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:41 PM
Response to Original message
1. This is heartbreaking. nt
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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:45 PM
Response to Original message
2. "What do we do with his apology?"
Well, I'm sure nobody who survived this massacre or was outraged by it will harbor any ill will toward NATO or the United States. I mean, sure, we can launch two wars because we were scared, but is sudden death raining from the skies any reason for other people to get all mad and stuff?
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mike_c Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:48 PM
Response to Original message
3. I agree-- the killers should be handed over to the Afghans....
Make the rat bastards pay more attention, next time. :grr:
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QC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:50 PM
Response to Original message
4. That happens at the dentist's office all the time. n/t
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EFerrari Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 11:19 PM
Response to Reply #4
18. Sometimes I think we're unteachable.
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:51 PM
Response to Original message
5. I believe this terrorizing the people of
Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan is deliberate.
If it were not deliberate, there would not be the same pattern of attacking civilians over and over and over.
I think the plan is to justify the need for long term military intervention.
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tekisui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:53 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. Planned instability.
Perpetuation of wars.
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MadHound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:53 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. No better way of guaranteeing a long term stay than turning the people against you and your puppets
We've seen this pattern over and over. Just keep feeding that MIC.
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Robb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:55 PM
Response to Reply #5
8. Let me make sure I understand you
...You are saying you believe ISAF forces are deliberately targeting civilians?
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tekisui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:59 PM
Response to Reply #8
10. Maybe deliberately not making absolutely sure there
are not civilians present?
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 10:17 PM
Response to Reply #8
13. Seems to be a lot more than mistakes would cover.
And remember those stories of journalists being deliberately targeted in Iraq?
And the military in Iraq killing Iraq citizens in their own homes and in cars on the street for no reason?
At best, there is an over abundance of "mistakes" and "poor targeting".

But too many stories of school houses being blown up by our own forces lead me to think there is a more sinister reason behind all the "mistakes".

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Robb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 11:17 PM
Response to Reply #13
17. Can you quantify that?
...for example, in a war zone with X number of fighters on both sides, Y number of civilians trying to live their lives in said war zone, Z engagements daily... At what number do you arrive at the conclusion that there's some hidden policy of deliberately targeting civilians?

Or is it a gut thing, like you feel like you've read a lot of stories about it lately, more than you remember reading in past conflicts?

Your comment about schools being blown up led me to ask in particular. As an example, the Taliban blew up one and burned down another in the last 36 hours, yet the events appear little-covered in the Western press and not at all on DU.
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dixiegrrrrl Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 11:42 PM
Response to Reply #17
19. Well, let me give it a shot, then I am off to bed.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Obama: U.S. Troops in Afghanistan Must Do More Than Kill Civilians
"Asked whether he would move U.S. troops out of Iraq to better fight terrorism elsewhere, he brought up Afghanistan and said, “We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there.” …
*************************************************

NATO air strike kills 33 Afghan civilians

by Waheedullah Massoud

February 22, 2010

KABUL (AFP) – A NATO air strike killed up to 33 Afghan civilians, including women and a child, sparking fresh anger from Kabul on Monday against US-led forces pressing a major offensive to defeat the Taliban.

Top US commander Stanley McChrystal, who has made winning Afghan hearts and minds the focus of plans to end the eight-year war in Afghanistan, was forced into another apology over civilian deaths after the third incident in a week.
**************************************************************************************************

by Jason Ditz, April 03, 2009
http://news.antiwar.com/2009/04/03/us-drones-kill-at-least-13-in-north-waziristan/

US drones launched a missile attack against a home in North Waziristan on Saturday morning, killing at least 13 and wounding at least eight others. Officials say that civilians were among the casualties caused by the two missiles. One intelligence official said that foreign militants were staying in the home at the time of the attack.

That attack occurred in the Datta Khel area, at around 3 AM. It was the latest in a growing number of attacks launched by the Obama Administration over the past two months.
*********************************************************************************************
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-06-24-karzai_N.htm
Afghan civilians reportedly killed more by U.S., NATO than insurgents
6/24/2007

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces fighting insurgents in Afghanistan have killed at least 203 civilians so far this year — surpassing the 178 civilians killed in militant attacks, according to an Associated Press tally.

Insurgency attacks and military operations have surged in recent weeks, and in the past 10 days, more than 90 civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Taliban insurgents, said President Hamid Karzai.

On Sunday, another civilian may have been killed when British troops opened fire in a populated area after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, officials and witnesses said.
********************************************************************************************
http://cursor.org/stories/civilian_deaths.htm
"What causes the documented high level of civilian casualties -- 3,000 - 3,400 civilian deaths -- in the U.S. air war upon Afghanistan? The explanation is the apparent willingness of U.S. military strategists to fire missiles into and drop bombs upon, heavily populated areas of Afghanistan."

March 2002

When U.S. warplanes strafed the farming village of Chowkar-Karez, 25 miles north of Kandahar on October 22-23rd,killing at least 93 civilians, a Pentagon official said, "the people there are dead because we wanted them dead." The reason? They sympathized with the Taliban"
*********************************************************************

Posted on Tuesday, 03.02.10
Airstrikes kill fewer Afghans, but civilian deaths still high
By NANCY A. YOUSSEF
McClatchy Newspapers

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Even as U.S. forces take steps to reduce the number of Afghan civilians killed by aerial attacks, other civilian casualties remain stubbornly high - deaths in so-called "escalation of force" incidents, in which edgy American troops fire on civilians who come too close to their convoys or roadblocks.
************************************************

That was ONE page of Google...


Goodnight....pleasant dreams.













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Robb Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-04-10 09:12 AM
Response to Reply #19
23. Well, that's an answer.
You think it's deliberate because you see a lot of it, but you can't exactly quantify the number that got you to thinking they're deliberately targeting civilians.

I appreciate it, and would only ask that you examine that. Thanks.
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Starry Messenger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 09:57 PM
Response to Original message
9. But I thought this was for their own good!
:sarcasm:
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QC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 10:06 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. My most recent filling was far worse than this. n/t
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Starry Messenger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 10:21 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. Fighting the Taliban is like scraping tartar.
Got to get all the bits, no matter how onerous.
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jonnyblitz Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 11:04 PM
Response to Reply #11
16. my last root canal was much worse than my Desert Storm
stint. :patriot:
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QC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 11:42 PM
Response to Reply #16
20. I once had a wisdom tooth pulled.
Edited on Wed Mar-03-10 11:42 PM by QC
It was worse than what Oliver Cromwell did to the Irish at Drogheda.
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Starry Messenger Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 11:45 PM
Response to Reply #20
21. Oh you remind me--
I had all four pulled at once and it was totally the Mai Lai massacre.
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QC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Mar-04-10 12:46 AM
Response to Reply #21
22. Don't even get me started on my last cleaning! n/t
Edited on Thu Mar-04-10 12:47 AM by QC
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Bluebear Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 10:08 PM
Response to Original message
12. And all in our names. nt
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leftstreet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Mar-03-10 10:58 PM
Response to Original message
15. K&R
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