Rinse/Repeat

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....this is what the military has done for decades in Afghanistan.

This is how our nation justifies and subsequently ignores the collateral consequences of our military activity abroad.

This is American drone warfare.

Jonathan Lemire @JonLemire
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon watchdog finds no negligence in mistaken drone strike that killed Afghan civilians, official tells AP.

Link to tweet

Curious about the language of 'no negligence.' Was it then deliberate?

All In with Chris Hayes @allinwithchris 6m
"All of them have names:" Chris Hayes on the 10 civilians killed in Kabul drone strike. https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-all-of-them-have-names-hayes-on-10-civilians-killed-in-kabul-drone-strike-121212997890



...this is the full extent of how our military has dealt with security issues in Afghanistan for over a decade since they pulled back from patrolling roads and raiding homes with special forces.

When people show pictures of Afghans subjected to Taliban violence or other oppression and insist the U.S. is somehow responsible for protecting civilians there, remember our military forces are a blunt instrument, not a 'precision' tool with 'smart' bombs that can intervene in civil conflict in other nations like characters in a video game.

Can we come to an understanding about what the devastating power of our military is actually good for? Killing Afghans in defense of Afghans has always been our least responsible role there.



I'll keep going...

In May of 2009, after nearly a week of denials and counter accusations, an anonymous U.S. military official admitted their airstrikes in Afghanistan killed at least 50 civilians. Despite that conclusion, local authorities still insisted as many as 140 innocent civilians had died.

Initially, the U.S. military gave their standard denial that civilians were killed, as they have in all of the instances where civilians had been killed by the collateral effects of U.S. airstrikes (deliberately targeted, only to find later 'faulty intelligence' led them astray.

Later, when local police and other Afghan officials protested and produced bodies of the women and children who had been caught in the way of the deliberate bombing, Pentagon officials immediately strained to find some way to blame the Taliban- claiming they killed the civilians.

The airstrikes which destroyed a community of homes was preceded by a fierce firefight between Afghan/coalition forces and Taliban combatants who had gotten the better of the skirmish, managed to destroy some vehicles, and had killed a number of soldiers, including one American.

The Independent: "Airstrikes were neither pinpoint nor brief: "A claim by American officials, was repeated by Defence Sec Gates that Taliban might have killed people with grenades because they didn't pay an opium tax is not supported by any eyewitnesses... US admits it did conduct an air strike at the time & place, but it's becoming clear, going by the account of survivors, the air raid was not a brief attack by several aircraft acting on mistaken intel, but a sustained bombardment in which 3 villages were pounded to pieces."

After reports from the Red Cross and others confirmed that civilians had been slaughtered in the three villages - Gerani, Gangabad and Koujaha - which sustained the brunt of the hours of bombardments, Gates & Sec Clinton in a statement with Karzai did indeed express 'regret.'

Subordinates at Pentagon didn't wait however, to float to the press what they said were "loosely sourced" rumors suggesting combatants had taken time during the hours of bombings to stage killings of villagers in the Taliban stronghold to make it appear a result of US airstrikes.

However, other reports show that civilians took refuge in the homes after news of the 12hr battle. "We know those killed included an Afghan Red Crescent volunteer and 13 family members who'd been sheltering from fighting in a bombed home." ICRC's head of delegation in Kabul said.

Riots broke out that Thursday after the bodies of more than a dozen of newly discovered civilians killed were brought by protesters to Farah City, with angry Afghans throwing stones at police__ who, in return, opened fire on the crowd, wounding several.

Epilogue:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will not end air strikes in Afghanistan as demanded by President Hamid Karzai after two villages were hit by U.S. warplanes last week, White House National Security Advisor James Jones said on Sunday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-usa-sb-idUSTRE5491EL20090510

...and so it goes.

Rinse/Repeat

[SoCalDavidS]

1. If You're Looking For Accountability, You've Got The Wrong Country For That

We don't hold our own accountable for attacks on our own citizens, so why should anybody expect it when the result is a bunch of Afghans that our military likely considers collateral damage.

And people wonder why we're hated around the world, and why some like myself, consider this to be a Shithole country, that couldn't give 2 shits about people in countries around the world.

IT IS WHO WE FUCKING ARE!!

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2. I am looking for accountability, not expecting it anytime soon

...this is my shithole.