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CivilianCasualties
Afghans Torch NATO Vehicles After Civilian Deaths
By Christopher Weber - Politics DailyNATO supply vehicles were set ablaze in eastern Afghanistan after allegations were made public that U.S. and Afghan troops killed three civilians in their home during a nighttime raid. The trucks were torched after a joint patrol fatally shot three people, including two brothers, and arrested two others, The Washington Post reported. Over 100 Afghans demonstrated against the killings in Logar province. The angry crowd blocked traffic on a main road and used grenades to set fire to at least ten fuel tankers, local officials said. NATO officials later said the men killed were insurgents who ...
U.S. Troops Fire on Afghan Bus, Killing Five Civilians
By David Sessions - Politics DailyU.S. troops fired on a civilian bus Monday in the Afghan city of Kandahar, killing at least five and wounding 18, the New York Times reports. The attack angered local leaders and drew hundreds of demonstrators to a nearby bus station, where they shouted anti-American chants and blocked the road for over an hour. The U.S. military confirmed the shooting but there were disputes over the details, such as whether the troops had first shot flares to warn the bus driver to stay back. A spokesman for the military said a military convoy traveling ahead of the bus fired three warning flares, but the ...
Iraq War Triumphalism Ignores a Key Matter: Dead Civilians
By David Corn - Politics DailyWhenever there's an election in Iraq, U.S. triumphalism follows. In a recent column, Peter Wehner, my PoliticsDaily.com colleague, touts George W. Bush's war in Iraq and joins others in the it-hasn't-turned-out-so-bad chorus. But these pronouncements serve as a reminder that it's rather easy to be a freedom fighter with somebody else's blood. Wehner, who worked in the Bush White House, argues that the "dramatic turnaround" in Iraq since 2006 shows that the war was not, as columnist Joe Klein once observed, "probably the biggest foreign policy mistake in American history." He echoes Thomas ...
NATO Airstrike in Afghanistan Kills 33 Civilians
By David Sessions - Politics DailyThe Afghan Cabinet said Monday that an airstrike by NATO forces on Sunday killed 33 civilians, including three women and one child, the Associated Press reports. The deaths came amid a major offensive in which U.S. and NATO forces have put a strong emphasis on protecting civilians from the Taliban and earning their trust. "We are extremely saddened by the tragic loss of innocent lives," NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal said. "I have made it clear to our forces that we are here to protect the Afghan people, and inadvertently killing or injuring civilians undermines their trust and ...
Taliban Cause Most Civilian Deaths, but U.S. Gets the Blame
By David Wood - Politics DailyTaliban insurgents have intensified their attacks on Afghan civilians with IEDs, suicide bombers and assassinations and executions, according to a new United Nations report. The killings helped make 2009 the deadliest year for civilians since the U.S. intervention in 2001. Afghan civilian deaths caused by American and allied forces actually declined. Yet, the perception among most Afghans is that the United States is responsible when Afghans are killed. "We have a long way to go in the public perception,'' a senior U.S. officer told me by phone from Kabul Thursday. Typical of the ...
Afghan Air War: More fighting, More Bombs, and Continued Civilian Casualties
By David Wood - Politics DailySHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- American strike fighters and bombers are pounding insurgents in Afghanistan with increasing fury, despite a standing order by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander, to avoid civilian casualties. President Obama is expected soon to announce his decision on a new Afghan war strategy and on whether to grant McChrystal's request for additional ground troops. Regardless of Obama's decisions, air war planners anticipate an increase in close air support missions in Afghanistan. The accelerating pace of air operations raises the likelihood of additional ...
Moving Target: The Pitfalls Facing U.S. Air Power in Afghanistan
By David Wood - Politics DailyPrecision air strikes have come a long way since an early aviator heaved a brick over the side of his biplane almost a century ago. Thanks to lasers and satellite guidance systems, the Air Force now can hit a dime from 20,000 feet with a guided bomb, after the bomb has flown into the center window of a two-story house, the one with the goat in the doorway. ...
Fact-Check: McCain's 'Dishonorable' Ad
By David Knowles - Politics DailyVia Factcheck.org, we are confronted with yet another bogus ad from John McCain. The irony here, is that the ad, titled "Dangerous", accuses Obama of being "dishonorable" while using utterly dishonorable tactics to prove its point. The evidence McCain uses to back up his claim is the following quote from 2007 about the situation in Afghanistan: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 problems there.Since that time, of course, the United States has followed Obama's ...
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