Fatal error in the fog of battle

[unhappycamper]

Abdul Ghafar, whose wife was killed in a night raid by US special forces, has threatened to use his infant son as a human bomb if he does not get justice.


Fatal error in the fog of battle
Jeremy Kelly, Kabul
From: The Australian
September 28, 2010 12:00AM

CIVILIAN deaths at the hands of Western troops in Afghanistan are hampering efforts to win hearts and minds.

SCRIBBLED on the wall of a toilet cubicle at the sprawling Kandahar Airfield, home to thousands of foreign troops, is graffiti mocking the name of the International Security Assistance Force, the name of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

"ISAF," the graffiti reads, "I Slaughter Afghan Families."

The poor-taste humour is one of many variants of a long-running joke about the 46-nation mission. (I Saw Americans Fighting is one favoured at the expense of the more timid member countries.)

Yet, worryingly for the commanders of the mission in Afghanistan, where the local community's perception is as important as reality, and gossip and rumour are as good as fact, it's a view shared by a large part of Afghanistan's population.