Six Afghan Children Killed in U.S. Attack

[DuctapeFatwa]

Six children were crushed to death by a collapsing wall during an assault by U.S. forces on a weapons compound in eastern Afghanistan (news - web sites), an American military spokesman said Wednesday — the second time in a week that children have been killed in U.S. action against Taliban and al-Qaida suspects.

Both incidents occurred in Pashtun-dominated areas, risking further alienation among the country's largest ethnic group from which the Islamic militant Taliban emerged. The areas already have been a focus of insurgent attacks on coalition and government targets, and international aid workers.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031210/ap_on_re_as/afghan_children_killed&cid=516&ncid=716

[Beaker]

1. that makes 15 CHILDREN in two days!

winning hearts and minds...

[Say_What]

7. Guardian called it a "another serious US military blunder"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1103868,00.html

[lostnfound]

11. That photo is unspeakably sad.

Dear Afghan mothers, I am so sorry I didn't get active politically and speak out 20 years ago. Please forgive me for wasting time.

Dear God, teach me the right words and right attitude to wake up my still-sleeping countrymen. And please give George W the job he deserves, whatever that might be in your infinite wisdom and infinite justice.

Amen.

[sam sarrha]

2. The walls are just mud, and they are mostly small walled compounds

that enclose family clans.. i imagine that conditions are pretty crowded. when someone hoards weapons in a place like that it is courting disaster. But the other six were killed in a field next to a compound by a MagicDragon...at high altitude. the details were sketchy... whether it was during a battle, in which case why were they 'playing' in a field ?

[DuctapeFatwa]

3. It is hard to defend the murder of children

And those who are called or obligated to do so for whatever reason do not have an easy or enviable task.

[htuttle]

4. Indeed

I don't think I could bring myself to defend such an action no matter how much I was paid....

[thebigidea]

8. "in which case why were they 'playing' in a field ?"

No doubt they were plotting against Freedom, and thus against America.

[donsu]

5. Oops our christian pres. has caused 15 children to be murdered

but it's ok because god is on his side.


what gets me is that real christians let the bushgang get away with highjacking their god. I guess they are turning the other cheek.

[Say_What]

6. How about the thousands of men that disappeared in 2001??

<clips>

Did American soldiers commit war crimes during the invasion of Afghanistan?

According to eyewitnesses, U.S. Special Forces supervised--some say orchestrated--the systematic murder of more than 3,000 captured Taliban soldiers in November 2001. That charge is the centerpiece of a documentary film, "Afghan Massacre: The Convoy of Death," expected to be released in the United States within the next few weeks.

"There has been a cover-up by the Pentagon," says Scottish director Jamie Doran, a former producer for the BBC. "They're hiding behind a wall of secrecy, hoping this story will go away--but it won't." Indeed, "Massacre" has already been shown on German television and to several European parliaments. The United Nations has promised an investigation. But thanks to a virtual media blackout, few Americans are aware that, on the eve of another war, their nation's reputation as a bastion of human rights is rapidly dissipating.

American Involvement in Genocide?

The allegations stem from the uprising at Qala-i-Jhangi fortress, a dramatic event that marked the last major confrontation between U.S.-backed forces of the Northern Alliance and the Taliban government. Several hundred prisoners, including "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh, revolted against their guards and seized a weapons cache. Responding to Special Forces soldiers working with the Northern Alliance, U.S. jets used bombs to kill most of the rebels, but not before CIA interrogator Johnny "Mike" Spann and an unknown number of Northern Alliance soldiers were shot to death.

Eighty-six Talibs, including Lindh, survived the Qala-i-Jhangi revolt. Meanwhile, 8,000 more soldiers surrendered at Kunduz, the last Taliban redoubt in northern Afghanistan. Commanders loyal to General Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord who later became Hamid Karzai's deputy defense minister, had painstakingly negotiated the surrender of the Taliban from Kunduz and Qala-i-Jhangi.

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/afghan/2003/0204mass.htm

[scottcsmith]

9. Here's what the military spokesperson had to say

This is from the story reported on MSNBC:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/1002011.asp?0cv=CB10

Lt. Col. Brian Hiferty
"We try very hard not to kill anyone. We would prefer to capture the terrorists rather than kill them,” Hilferty said. “But in this incident, if noncombatants surround themselves with thousands of weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition and howitzers and mortars in a compound known to be used by a terrorist we are not completely responsible for the consequences."

Can you believe that? Children are now considered "noncombatants." We're basically saying "Hey, you're going to get dead children if they are in a house with lots of weapons."

Not completely responsible?

If we're so interested in capturing terrorist suspects, why are we sending out attack aircraft (as we did over the weekend in an attack that killed nine children) and troops, if not to kill the suspects? Holy shit, what kind of logic is that? "We think there's a terrorist suspect in that house over there. Let's send two attack aircraft to bomb the house, and then we'll 'capture' the suspect."

15 children dead in the space of a few days, as well as several adults, all in an effort to track down two men. Unbelievable.

[54anickel]

10. I am ashamed to be known as an American and Christian these days.

It is all so sad. What can we do? I write letters, I speak out to anyone in a discussion on these issues, I speak out at my church.
Short of instigating a Civil war, I don't know what to do. I don't think we can truly wait another year for the elections, and what if Shrub gets reSelected?
:cry: :shrug: :grr:

[thebigidea]

12. ugh

"Tasteless!" they said - but somehow the attacks are merely "regrettttttable."