Another Afghan ‘Mistake’

September 18, 2008

Just when it was thought to be safe to venture over to a relative’s house in Afghanistan:

  • An Afghan district governor and two of his bodyguards have been killed by mistake in a Nato raid on a house in Uruzgan province, police say.
    Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, expressed sorrow over the killing, which he called a “misunderstanding,” and said the district chief, Rozi Khan, was his close associate.
    Khan was allegedly killed on Wednesday when he went to the aid of a friend who had called for help believing the Taliban had surrounded his home, Uruzgan police chief, Gulab Khan, said.
    The forces outside the man’s home were however international troops, who in turn mistook the governor and his men for Taliban fighters, Gulab Khan said.

And while Adm. Mike Mullen, big cheese of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Pakistan Tuesday to piece together a plan with the Pakistani military to coordinate US-led strikes into their country, and mainly to soothe rumpled Pakistan egos, a couple of US unmanned drones struck at the South Waziristan Agency, near the Afghan border — scene of several major military ‘incidents’ in the last few weeks — and killed seven people.

  • And while negative reactions from Pakistan’s government and military are nothing new the latest attack, coming as it did just hours after Admiral Mullen promised that the US would respect Pakistan’s sovereignty, has further undermined American credibility in the nation.
    Pakistani Defense Minister Ahmad Mukthar said Admiral Mullen had appeared “very understanding” during their meeting, and that the latest air strikes “have come as a surprise.”

Surprise‘ might be an understatement of a word.

Peoples of the world must come to understand the US lies — and tortures, and will invade your ass if you don’t do as they say, and they will lie to you face-to-face so you will have a ‘surprise’ — even when they don’t have to, but it’s political, so world don’t take it personally.
Yet, a certain part of the world knows Decider George and all his dark, ugly misadventures the past near-eight years, and the world takes a collective shudder at though of Jackboot John McCain slowly dying in the Oval Office.

The BBC reported this morning:

  • Pakistan was not warned about a suspected US missile strike in the north-west on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said.
    Such attacks were “counter-productive” and reflected an “institutional disconnect” on the US side, he said.

    Last week, it emerged in Washington that President George Bush had authorised cross-border attacks by US troops based in Afghanistan.
    Pakistan’s army has warned that the aggressive US policy will widen the insurgency by uniting the tribesmen with the Taleban.

Not only is there an “institutional disconnect,” Mr. Qureshi, the US military is now just lobbing rockets at a particular spot and see what happens.
Yesterday, CIA chief Michael Hayden, another Mullen-like liar, at an Air Force Association conference let drop some hints about the hi-tech bullshit now employed in the Wide World War on Terror.
And from the great Danger Room blog at wired.com:

  • “Today, we routinely use kinetic force [bombs-and-bullets attacks] not just for its own effect, but to create a response that will allow us to collect more intelligence. We use military operations to excite the enemy, prompting him to respond,” Hayden said.
    “We create and benefit from a highly virtuous cycle: Operations generate opportunities to learn more about the enemy, the intelligence gained creates opportunities for follow-on operations, and so on.”

And so it goes…

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