US kills seven Afghan civilians

[muriel_volestrangler]

The US military has admitted killing seven civilians during a battle with insurgents in Afghanistan.

A statement regretting the "loss of innocent life" and announcing an investigation was released by the US.

The deaths occurred during a firefight between a coalition patrol and up to 10 militants in Kunar province near the border with Pakistan, the US said.
...
"Our surveillance indicated that there was a house with a cave nearby and that the insurgents were going back and forth between both, so we suppressed the area with a combined arms assault of close air support, artillery and direct fire," Maj Hackathorn said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4914838.stm

"Up to" 10 militants. Air support, artillery and direct fire? They blew the shit out of the place.

[marmar]

1. Is it just me, or is the "war on terror" going badly?

:shrug:

[LynnTheDem]

2. Apparently according to these folk, it ain't just you...

Rumsfeld: US Losing War Of Ideas
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/27/terror/main1442811.shtml

US 'losing media war to al-Qaeda'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4725992.stm

US Figures Show Sharp Global Rise In Terrorism
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601623.html

United States: Losing the War on Terror
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/terrorwar/analysis/2004/aprilharder.htm

Evidence that the US May Be Losing the Global War on Terror
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1501

US: Three Years On, War on Terrorism Looks Like a Loser
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=25437

”We have a stronger jihadi presence in Iraq today than in March 2003,” noted Roger Cressey, the former director for Transnational Threats in Bush's National Security Council at a briefing at the libertarian Cato Institute earlier this week.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0911-01.htm

The 'War on Terrorism': Winning or Losing? Losing.
http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/briefings/winningorlosing.htm

Global terror attacks triple in 2004
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0428/dailyUpdate.html

Worldwide terrorism-related deaths on the rise
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5889435%20 /

US Losing the War on Terror in Iraq; The invasion of Iraq has increased, not decreased, the threat of terrorist attack
http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2629.html

Occupation Made World Less Safe, Pro-War Institute Says
http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/terrorwar/analysis/2004/0526iissreport.htm

Iraq Invasion Hurt War on Terror
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0719-10.htm

Musharraf: World more dangerous because of Iraq War
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/9/25/03544/7945

Blix Says Iraq War May Have Worsened Terror Threat
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0319-02.htm

Poll: Aussies, Brits, Italians say Iraq war increased terrorism
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1576/5027215.html

Iraq intervention increased threat of terrorism
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0409/S00127.htm

UK Government; Iraq war 'increased terror threat'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3451239.stm

US State Department Corrects Report to Show Rise in Terrorism
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5264512 /

[marmar]

3. Nice collection of links. I'm saving those!

Thanks. :pals:

[cliss]

5. Wow, very nice L.

That's a nice collection of links. I'll try to read as many as I can.....but will start with that Einstein Rumsfailed.

Can you imagine this? I bet I can guess exactly what happened. They even explain it...

"Our surveillance indicated that there was a house with a cave nearby and that the insurgents were going back and forth between both, so we suppressed the area with a combined arms assault of close air support, artillery and direct fire".

See? These were probably ordinary people, hanging their laundry in the cave. Or maybe they had a food cellar in there.

U.S. motto: "Shoot first and ask questions later".

[HuffleClaw]

15. kudos!

a nice collection of truth

[LynnTheDem]

17. Thanks!

I like truth. :)

[gratuitous]

4. "We suppressed the area"

Yeah, I think that translates to "blew the shit out of the place" from militaryese. But "suppressed" just sounds so much more . . . I dunno, benign, or something. Like someone clapped a hand over your mouth.

I wonder what our military folks would call it if the people they're shooting at could respond with a "combined arms assault of close air support, artillery and direct fire"? I don't suppose they would say that they had been "suppressed."

And seven civilians dead. Seven persons blown into eternity by the American wehrmacht.

[saigon68]

8. Please do not call them the AMERICAN WEHRMACHT

Although they have the same look alike helmets, and sometimes the same brutish outlook

I was warned by the powers that be, you can only speak kindly of them

And never ever criticise their actions or not show support for their efforts

You need to give them a big S*** H*** and carry on

Remember the principle of "I was just following orders" cannot be criticized here.

THE RULES

Do not post broad-brush smears against US service people. Do not blame the troops for the mistakes of their officers or their Commander-in-Chief. Show the appropriate level of respect to those individuals who have put their own lives on the line to defend this country.

[Terran1212]

11. True at least the German air force had a better record on civilian death

[saigon68]

12. Even at Guernica --- Now the Big Chimp has IRAQNICA

[ninkasi]

16. What can we do?

I am so upset about the way things are going...as a great-grandmother, when I hear of 18 and 19 year troops sent to wage a bloody, illegal war, I feel sick. They are not being not given the tools they need to survive the trauma they meet when committing acts of atrocity. I know the mind-set of young people this age, and damn and curse the ones who use them as fodder.

Some of the soldier severing in Iraq are too young to drink in the states they come from. The logic is that they are not mature enough to cope with the act of drinking, and driving. Instead, we put weapons in their hands, and send them overseas to a country which doesn't want them, and expect them to somehow bring the blessings of democracy to a country which has been traumatized by years of sanctions.

What more horrors and the right-wing, and their anointed savior Bush unleash upon a world already tired of blood-letting? If I had the ability to send all of them to hell, I would do so. Instead, I rely upon the elections in 11-06, and hope for the best. I can't abandon all hope, as difficult as it is to cling to it.

[ConcernedCanuk]

6. What part of "Thou Shalt Not Kill" does the USA misunderstand?

.
.
.

:shrug:

[pinniped]

7. Nooooooooooooo shit.

What, the other day they were so excited they allegedly wiped these 41 alleged Taliban dudes off the planet they couldn't fit the dead civilian bit in their stupid headline?

THis is always the outcome. Hell, I bet none of the dead were even these alleged Taliban dudes.

More B.S.

"Our surveillance indicated that there was a house with a cave nearby and that the insurgents were going back and forth between both, so we suppressed the area with a combined arms assault of close air support, artillery and direct fire," Maj Hackathorn said.

I guess they were wearing clothes that had INSURGENT emblazoned on it.

Fucking stupid.

[donco6]

9. Civilians? Don't you mean "insurgents"?

Iraqi = insurgent

Unarmed Iraqi = insurgent

Small, childlike Iraqi = insurgent

C'mon, are you antiAmerican or what? :sarcasm:

[saigon68]

13. They are all insurgents

There for according to Cheney's logic "KILL THEM ALL"

[donco6]

14. Can that man be more disgusting? eom

[Terran1212]

10. Innocent people are being blown apart by our tax dollars every day

But CNN isn't there to cry over them, so their deaths don't happen.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

18. "so we suppressed the area...

...with a combined arms assault of close air support, artillery and direct fire,..."

Gee, this wouldn't be anything like going into an area and just indiscriminately slaughtering anyone and everyone unlucky enough to happen to be there, would it? Reports of this kind of operation yielding these kinds of results are much to frequent for this to be an aberration. I think it's become standard practice. It's what our frustrated and demoralized troops did so much of in Vietnam. Same shit, different war.