After US Strikes, Afghans Describe "Tractor Trailers Full of Pieces of Human Bodies"

[Echo In Light]

After US Strikes, Afghans Describe "Tractor Trailers Full of Pieces of Human Bodies"
By Jeremy Scahill May 09, 2009 "Huffington Post"

As rage spreads in Afghanistan after US bombing that killed up to 130 people, unnamed Pentagon officials are spinning another cover-up. Defiant Obama moves ahead with troop increase.
As President Barack Obama prepares to send some 21,000 more US troops into Afghanistan, anger is rising in the western province of Farah, the scene of a US bombing massacre (http://rebelreports.com/post/104287466/red-cross-us-airstrikes-killed-13-members-of-one) that may have killed as many as 130 Afghans, including 13 members of one family. At least six houses were bombed and among the dead and wounded are women and children. As of this writing reports indicate some people remain buried in rubble. The US airstrikes happened on Monday and Tuesday. Just hours after Obama met with US-backed president Hamid Karzai Wednesday, hundreds of Afghans--perhaps as many as 2,000-- poured into the streets of the provincial capital, chanting "Death to America." The protesters demanded a US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In Washington, Karzai said he and the US occupation forces should operate from a "higher platform of morality," saying, "We must be conducting this war as better human beings," and recognize that "force won't buy you obedience." And yet, his security forces opened fire on the demonstrators, reportedly wounding five people.

According to The New York Times:

In a phone call played on a loudspeaker on Wednesday to outraged members of the Afghan Parliament, the governor of Farah Province, Rohul Amin, said that as many as 130 civilians had been killed, according to a legislator, Mohammad Naim Farahi. Afghan lawmakers immediately called for an agreement regulating foreign military operations in the country.

"The governor said that the villagers have brought two tractor trailers full of pieces of human bodies to his office to prove the casualties that had occurred," Mr. Farahi said. "Everyone at the governor's office was crying, watching that shocking scene."

Mr. Farahi said he had talked to someone he knew personally who had counted 113 bodies being buried, including those of many women and children. Later, more bodies were pulled from the rubble and some victims who had been taken to the hospital died, he said.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22578.htm

[Mari333]

1. and a very happy mothers day to the mothers of any Afghan children

who were massacred by U.S. airstrikes. Courtesy of the Pentagon and neverending war machine of the USA.

:sarcasm:

collateral damage. no, children, they are called babies and children. just like your children.

[laststeamtrain]

2. K & R. Nothing to say. Hopes are being dashed. n/t.

[RC]

3. Herein lies the problem -

"We must be conducting this war as better human beings,..."

How disconnected is that? Better human beings would not be at war in the first place. Bombing wedding parties was bad enough, but as with everything else destructive we do, it escalates.

If we brought all of our troops home and closed all of our military bases outside the U.S., Peace would break out. The enemy would be gone.

[Echo In Light]

5. Yes. Trouble is, those who own/run the country can't make profits with "peace."

Hence the need to manufacture crisis, and for the problem/reaction/solution ruse to yield a cover story to disguise the WANT of naked aggression/profits over people.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Another "victory" for the USofA in our fight against...what was it?

Oh yeah. The screaming hordes of Afghan terrorists about to invade El Paso.

[flyarm]

6. THEY LOVE US , THEY REALLY REALLY LOVE US..

"hundreds of Afghans--perhaps as many as 2,000-- poured into the streets of the provincial capital, chanting "Death to America." The protesters demanded a US withdrawal from Afghanistan."


"The governor said that the villagers have brought two tractor trailers full of pieces of human bodies to his office to prove the casualties that had occurred," Mr. Farahi said. "Everyone at the governor's office was crying, watching that shocking scene."


We are spreading "AMERICAN LOVE" EVERYWHERE..AREN'T WE..

YEAH THATS THE TICKET..SO LETS JUST SEND 21,000 MORE THERE SO THEY LOVE US EVEN MORE.. and why?? ahh yes all those poppies need to be moved!!..say to.. Turkey for distribution????????

[varelse]

7. Begs the question

who are the real terrorists in this world? Maybe it is time for us to have a good look in the mirror.

[flyarm]

8. well some of us know , and some of us don't want you to know , and some pretend they don't know ,

and others yet stay ignorant so they don't ever have to know.

But shhhhhhhhhhhh..don't tell anyone what is going on..or they might put you on their proverbial, ignut ignore list!!

[varelse]

9. This is very sad

ignoring our nation's crimes, and its status as an accessory to the crimes of other nations, will not make the consequences go away :(

[ProgressIn2008]

10. K&R for ugly truth. nt

[Maru Kitteh]

11. Not to be crass, but 130 people does not equal two tractor trailers. One small

commercial truck would be plenty. The horrendous loss of life experienced by these people does not need to be exaggerated - it is horrifying enough in it's reality.

I dislike exaggeration because it chips away at credibility, and for that to happen in this instance would mean more tragedy.

[ConsAreLiars]

13. If you are imagining these villages in Afghanistan as places served by highways with 18-wheelers

you are mistaken. In Afghanistan, the phrase refers to tractor-pulled trailers. There is no exaggeration. Non-US broadcasts have shown them being loaded to transport bodies to grave sites.

[Maru Kitteh]

14. Then it seems clarification would be useful. I did not imagine modern highways whizzing by these

villages, that would be absurd, however the phrase tractor-trailer holds a different meaning not just in this country but many others as well. I don't imagine a railway station in each of these villages either, but it would be perfectly reasonable to imagine villagers offloading their dead into traincars for transport to a capitol.

[ConsAreLiars]

15. I agree that the meaning is unclear to those

with limited knowledge of Afghanistan. Just as a further fact, there are no rail lines in Afghanistan and no train stations.

[Smith_3]

12. Every soldier who hasn't laid down arms and refused to obey orders at this point is a criminal.

[Echo In Light]

17. I've always had incredible admiration for those who do that - THAT'S courage!

[pnutbutr]

20. from the guy

who doesn't believe diplomacy works :rofl:

[ConsAreLiars]

16. Adding a kick to the Rec (nt)

[Echo In Light]

18. The Bad PR of Dead Civilians/Afghan airstrikes and the corporate media (FAIR)

The Bad PR of Dead Civilians
Afghan airstrikes and the corporate media
Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)

Early reports of a massive U.S. attack on civilians in western Afghanistan last week (5/5/09) hewed to a familiar corporate media formula, stressing official U.S. denials and framing the scores of dead civilians as a PR setback for the White House's war effort.

Scanning the headlines gave a sense of the media's view of the tragedy: "Civilian Deaths Imperil Support for Afghan War" (New York Times, 5/7/09), "Claim of Afghan Civilian Deaths Clouds U.S. Talks" (Wall Street Journal, 5/7/09), "Afghan Civilian Deaths Present U.S. With Strategic Problem" (Washington Post, 5/8/09).

As is frequently the case with such incidents (Extra! Update, 8/07), the primary fallout would seem to be the damage done to U.S. goals. The New York Times reported that civilian deaths "have been a decisive factor in souring many Afghans on the war." As CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric put it (5/6/09), "Reports of these civilian casualties could not have come at a worse time, as the Obama administration launches its new strategy to eradicate the Taliban and convince the Afghan people to support those efforts." Other outlets used very similar language to explain why the timing was "particularly sensitive" (Washington Post, 5/7/09) or "awkward" (Associated Press, 5/7/09) for the Obama administration.

While it is important to be cautious about early reports of such atrocities, many accounts played up U.S. denials. Some anonymous U.S. military officials vigorously denied that they were responsible, instead blaming the deaths on Taliban grenades and use of "human shields."

The New York Times reported (5/7/09):

Defense Department officials said late Wednesday that investigators were looking into witnesses' reports that the Afghan civilians were killed by grenades hurled by Taliban militants, and that the militants then drove the bodies around the village claiming the dead were victims of an American airstrike.

The initial examination of the site and of some of the bodies suggested the use of armaments more like grenades than the much larger bombs used by attack planes, said the military official, who requested anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

It is troubling to see an anonymous source given so much space to make such an elaborate case, seemingly based on little evidence. By the next day's edition of the Times (5/8/09), military sources appeared to be backtracking: "Initial American military reports that some of the casualties might have been caused by Taliban grenades, not American airstrikes, were 'thinly sourced,' a Pentagon official in Washington said Thursday, indicating that he was uncertain of their accuracy." That "thin" sourcing was good enough for most of the press, though, and similar instances continued.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/11-12

[pnutbutr]

19. 130 people in 6 houses sounds kinda odd

And have they finally made a determination about the small arms and grenade wounds on many of the bodies?

[pnutbutr]

21. Afghan and US forces were fighting Taliban at the time

so how many Taliban members were killed in the fighting and airstrikes or do they get lumped in as civilians also because they wear civilian clothing?