Ours
"Afghans: 14 workers killed in air strike; Construction crew attacked in error" by Amir Shah/Associated Press November 29, 2007
KABUL, Afghanistan - NATO warplanes hunting Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan mistakenly bombed an Afghan road construction crew sleeping in tents, killing 14 workers, Afghan officials said yesterday.
If confirmed that NATO hit the wrong target, the incident in mountainous Nuristan province late Monday would be the first major blunder by foreign troops in months. It follows sharp criticism earlier this year of mass civilian casualties caused in operations by US and NATO-led troops that have undermined their reputation among Afghan civilians and hurt the government of Western-backed President Hamid Karzai.
NATO's International Security Assistance Force said its warplanes conducted air strikes against Taliban fighters in the area Monday night and that a militant leader was targeted.
Spokesman Brigadier General Carlos Branco told a news conference:
"ISAF was engaged in Nurgaram and Du Ab [districts], and in those places we used air strikes] against Taliban fighters]. The situation is not clear at all at this stage. We are carrying out the investigation and trying to get a clear picture."
Why can't NATO just admit its murder?
Major Charles Anthony, another spokesman for the NATO force, said two bombs were dropped and there was a "strong indication that we got a Taliban leader during the course of the operation."
But Afghan officials said bombs hit two tents housing Afghan engineers and laborers contracted by the US military to build a road, killing 14 workers. They blamed faulty intelligence for the mistake.
Nuristan Governor Tamim Nuristani said the attacks followed reports that "the enemy" was in the area, but they instead hit the road construction workers as they were sleeping.
Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of Amerifa, a Kabul-based road construction company:
"All of our poor workers have been killed. I don't think the Americans were targeting our people. I'm sure it's the enemy of the Afghans who gave the Americans this wrong information."
Amerifa received the contract to build 135 miles of road for the US military last year, Jalili said. The company has requested that the US military - which operates in this remote and rugged region - investigate how it got the information that led to the strike, Jalili said.
The slain workers were from four nearby provinces and all but three of the bodies have been returned to their homes, Jalili said.
NATO and other foreign troops in Afghanistan came under scathing criticism earlier this year for carrying out airstrikes based on poor intelligence that caused numerous civilian casualties. As the war has escalated over the past two years, US and NATO commanders have been forced to rely increasingly on airstrikes to engage the Taliban in remote locations."
And we are hardly told about this, which just shatters my heart!
And we are "forced" to bomb those people into oblivion, huh?
STOP KILLING THEM!
The Poles:
"An Afghanistan War-Crimes Case Tests Poland’s Commitment to Foreign Missions" by NICHOLAS KULISH
It's always somebody elses war crimes in the NYT, you ever notice that, readers?
WARSAW, Nov. 28 — Poland is facing a rare war-crimes prosecution at a crucial juncture for both the newly elected government’s commitment to overseas military engagements and the effort to overhaul the nation’s armed forces.
Seven Polish soldiers sit in a military jail in Poznan, accused of killing six Afghan civilians, including women and children, in the village of Nangarkhel in August. Whether the mortar rounds that killed the Afghans were a result of bad aim, bad orders or bad intentions remains to be determined.
The charges against the soldiers have led the country into uncharted legal, moral and political territory. The case has become a test of the public’s stomach for sending soldiers into faraway battle in support of allies.
The issue is especially troubling to a country with a strong attachment to its military, a result of centuries of division and domination by foreign powers. Poland also tends to view itself as an underdog fighting on the side of right, typified by the mythic charge of Polish cavalry against Nazi tanks in World War II.
Bogdan Klich, the defense minister:
“We were convinced that our contribution was not only stable and militarily significant, but also that we stand for international law and humanitarian needs. From that point of view, what happened in Afghanistan is a shock for Polish public opinion. [The timing is particularly difficult because] we are in the critical phase of reshaping our involvement in the military missions, [including plans to withdraw from Iraq]."
The headline on the cover of the Polish edition of Newsweek after the soldiers were arrested on Nov. 13 said bluntly, “Blood on the Uniform.” On the cover of Polityka, a respected weekly newsmagazine, the larger question rang out: “Afghanistan: What Are We Doing There?”
That's a great question!
The answer is: Killing people, just like AmeriKa.
Except we got way more blood on our hands than the Poles!
The country has 1,200 soldiers in the NATO operation in Afghanistan. Poland has also been a significant ally for the United States in Iraq, and it still has 900 troops there. It has been a consistent contributor to international missions.
Western military experts have held up Poland as a success story among former Warsaw Pact countries that have joined NATO. The new government has also declared its intention to phase out conscription completely by 2010, as Poland continues its effort over many years to transform its army from a lumbering institution of the Communist era to a nimble modern force geared toward distant missions like Afghanistan and Iraq.
But the war in Iraq was unpopular with the Polish public even before the invasion in 2003. The opposition Civic Platform party ran in parliamentary elections this fall in part on the promise to bring troops home.
No one wanted this war except the monsters that lied us into it!
In his inaugural address last week, the new prime minister from that party, Donald Tusk, said Polish troops would be out of Iraq by the end of next year.
But Mr. Tusk renewed the country’s commitment to keeping troops in Afghanistan. Public opinion is opposed to that mission as well, according to one recent survey here conducted for the newspaper Gazeta Polska.
Good Polish people!!
Agnieszka Kwiatkowska, 32, Monday, as she waited for a train at the main station in Poznan:
“Our soldiers’ blood being spilled is pointless.”
I know what you mean, lady!
Wladyslaw Czysz, 80, a former soldier living in Poznan:
“The ones who should be charged are those who arrested them.”
He was referring to newspaper photographs here showing the arrests of the soldiers by officers wearing ski masks, images that inflamed public opinion.
Reflexively defending your hero-killers, huh? That's what gets me!
Would people defend the Germans from WWII?
We gotta stop what we are doing and use our military for DEFENSE only!
And does that arrest ever stink!
Many civilians here either say the soldiers are innocent, or at least give them the benefit of the doubt, saying that that the deaths were probably accidental.
The military prosecutor’s office said that on the morning of the mortar attack, separate Polish and American patrols left a shared base. They were attacked with improvised explosive devices. Several hours later, another group of Polish soldiers was sent to reinforce the patrols that were waiting with their damaged vehicles. The reinforcements opened fire with their mortar, killing the civilians.
Up to this point there has been no suggestion of American involvement in the civilian deaths.
At first, the soldiers said they had been returning fire.
Lt. Col. Zbigniew Rzepa, on the prosecution team, said Monday:
“We already know that this is not true.”
He did not explain why. The trial is unlikely to begin before February, and may start much later. The timing of the attack, two days after the first Polish soldier was killed in Afghanistan, fueled speculation in the news media that the killings may have been an act of revenge, though such suggestions have died down.
Yeah! We're LIBERATORS, not REVENGE KILLERS!
Think it matters to the Afghanis?
Jacek Relewicz, the lawyer for one of the privates in custody;
“Nobody thinks that this was an intentional act of vengeance by Polish soldiers.”
Marek Sterlingow, a reporter for Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading daily newspaper, who was at the base the day after the attack and has written several articles about it:
“I think that it is very unlikely that they did it on purpose. It is most likely that this was an accident, maybe an accident caused by a not-very-good tactic. I think that the Polish military got into such a bad situation because of the instinct of covering up.”
Despite the controversy, the new government says it is committed to the Afghanistan mission.
Mr. Klich, the defense minister:
“We have to contribute to the missions of NATO, even in such an exotic place for Polish public opinion as Afghanistan."
Some "liberation," huh?
What about the DEAD AFGHANIS?
Gee whiz!
