US finds 13 civilians died in Afghanistan strike

[CountAllVotes]

Source: Associated Press

KABUL – An operation the American military at first described as a "precision strike" instead killed 13 Afghan civilians and only three militants, the U.S. said Saturday, three days after sending a general to the site to investigate.

Civilian casualties have been a huge source of friction between the U.S. and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who has stepped up demands that U.S. and NATO operations kill no civilians and that Afghan soldiers take part in missions to help prevent unwanted deaths.

A U.S. military statement said the decision to dispatch a general to the western province of Herat to investigate shows how seriously the U.S. takes civilian casualties. The U.S. rarely releases the findings of civilian casualty investigations, and the disclosure this time could show the effect of Karzai's criticisms.

The U.S. military originally said 15 militants were killed Tuesday in a coalition operation in the Gozara district of Herat province, but Afghan officials said six women and two children were among the dead, casting doubt on the U.S. claim.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090221/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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Ah yes, this is the kind of change we can believe in! :argh:

[EFerrari]

1. The dead are always "militants" to the Pentagram until they are called out.

:puke:

[zombiezneedluv2]

2. I read a heartwrenching article about this...It's creating more animosity

towards the US...I have always stressed to the anti-war folk that Afghanistan war needs to go bye-bye, also. Too many protestors held up signs saying: "Out of Iraq now!"

[Supersedeas]

18. the media will slap the word collateral damage on 'em -- then back to commercials

[itsrobert]

3. Probably setup by Bush loyalist to stain Obama's hands

with the blood so Bush Administration could say but Obama did it too.

[scarletwoman]

4. Bullshit. Obama is authorizing these strikes. He could stop them any time he wants to.

I'm not accepting any excuses for this. Obama is just plain WRONG to keep these predator drones shooting missiles into villages.

sw

[Captain Hilts]

5. Same reason Obama wants to send more troops there? Because Bush told him to? nt

[CountAllVotes]

7. Obama is the President last time I checked

and yes, he's behind these strikes.

Don't be fooled again!!!

:kick:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

12. I bet George H. Bush was flying the drone from a secret underground base.

Trying to save his sons legacy.

David

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[itsrobert]

16. You are pretty damn rude

Keep it up. What was your user name before you got tombstoned the first time?

[Name removed]

6. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[excess_3]

8. how do you tell the difference?

civilian militant v. civilian non-militant

[tekisui]

9. If you can't tell the difference, hold your fire.

[StarryNite]

10. Same circus...

different clowns.

[ClayZ]

14. "STOP BOMBING! You are killing CHILDREN!"

I emailed the above message to the bu$h Whitehouse for years. I have sent it to the OBAMA Whitehouse twice now.


It makes me very sad. I marched against the VietNam War. I marched against the bu$h wars.

I "marched" to campaign for OBAMA. I guess I am going to have to MARCH against the wars that OBAMA does not END?


K and R

[Solly Mack]

11. K&R

:(

[bvar22]

15. So where's the Change?

:(

[Alamuti Lotus]

17. It got outsourced.... our sincere apologies for the confusing ad campaign

[bvar22]

19. The only change is....

...that Obama and The Democrats now own the War Crimes.

[Alamuti Lotus]

20. And proudly so, judging by the response it usually gets lately

Somehow overnight, 'the same old shit' (which was vociferously attacked prior) becomes part of some secret grand scheme to make everything ok. On a serious note, I sometimes wish that I could be so unquestioning and gullible, I might sleep better than I do.