I’m always amazed at how easy it is for US pilots up in the clouds to correctly identify and kill “insurgents” or “terrorists” or “Al Qaeda fighters”, or, as in this case, members of the Taliban, despite the claims by people on the ground that our bombs and missiles did not in fact kill any of the bad guys.
GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Nine police and two civilians were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, a provincial doctor said on Thursday, but the coalition said Taliban fighters had been killed.
The raid, which sparked protests, happened in a village outside Ghazni town to the southwest of Kabul on Wednesday night, Dr. Ismail Ibrahimzai, the head of the local public health department said.
“Nine police, including an officer, two civilians, one of them a woman, were killed in the raid,” he told Reuters.
Five police were wounded, he said, adding they were in a vehicle patrolling the area when it was hit in the air strike.
The U.S.-led coalition confirmed the attack but said several Taliban insurgents were killed in the raid involving small-arms and aerial-delivered conventional munitions.
That must be some super-duper double secret identification technology our air forces use to always correctly target the “bad people” while rarely, if ever, harming any of the good ones when the bombs fall. The only other alternative is to believe that our military spokespersons might be stretching the truth just a smidge, but we all know that can’t be true. Our military, like our Decider-in Chief, just doesn’t tell lies to the American people. I think its something coded genetically in their warrior DNA. I apologize for even mentioning the possibility. I just wish the people we were liberating weren’t so easily duped into believing the enemy propaganda about civilian casualties from our air strikes. I don’t know why they think we might not have their best interests at heart:
Civilian casualties fuel resentment of foreign forces in Afghanistan and the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly urged U.S. and NATO troops to do everything they can do to minimize civilian deaths.
Some 200 villagers marched toward Ghazni town to protest against the latest strike, witnesses said. They chanted slogans against Karzai’s government and U.S. troops who form the bulk of the coalition force in Afghanistan.
More than 500 civilians were killed last year in air strike or during operations by foreign troops, aid agencies and Afghan officials say.
Western forces dispute such estimates but say some civilians have been killed, mostly when the Taliban attack from civilian houses.
See what I mean? We let them know the real truth that it’s the Taliban who’s responsible for all the civilian deaths collateral damage, but they still blame our troops. What a bunch of ingrates!