Looks like that errant rocket that "veered off course" and killed fifteen Afghan civilians a few days ago didn't "veer" anywhere. It went exactly where it was supposed to go. Civilians didn't really matter to these guys. They either didn't know or didn't care.
Odds on that it was both.
From Wired.com:
Deadly Afghanistan Rocket Attack Actually Hit Its Target (Updated)
When a pair of rockets killed 10 or more civilians in Afghanistan on Sunday, the military initially said that the weapons had veered away from its intended target by a thousand feet or more. But a spokesman for the American-led coalition now tells Danger Room that the weapons from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) actually hit their intended target. Troops were unaware that there were civilians were inside.
And the sweet voice of reason, Malalai Joya, called McChrystal's Afghanistan strategy "ridiculous".
Dear heavens, will someone please listen to her?
From the Independent:
Joya condemns 'ridiculous' military strategy
"It is ridiculous," said Malalai Joya, an elected member of the Afghan parliament. "On the one hand they call on Mullah Omar to join the puppet regime. On another hand they launch this attack in which defenceless and poor people will be the prime victims. Like before, they will be killed in the Nato bombings and used as human shields by the Taliban.
Joya spoke to Allan Gregg on TVO not long ago. I think he was a little taken aback by her intensity and her bordering on despair while her people were massacred and her country destroyed. This is one amazing woman.
No wonder Stephen Harper wouldn't speak to her. She would have wiped the floor with him.
Malalai Joya in conversation with Allan Gregg on TVO
Filo: so glad to see you are printing again. I will come back more often now. I will now put you on my blogroll,
ReplyDeleteAs far as Mullah Omar goes, I do not think they can EXCLUDE him from any thing in Afghanistan. Karzai knows this.
http://realityzone-realityzone.blogspot.com/2010/02/mullah-omar-taliban-al-queda-disconnect.html
ReplyDeletehttp://realityzone-realityzone.blogspot.com/2010/01/ret-brigadier-sultan-amir-tarar-colonel.html
ReplyDeleteHello, RZ. Sometimes I get so tied up reading that I don't get around to writing. Every once in a while something happens though, like the veering/non-veering rockets in Afghanistan, and I just have to post it.
ReplyDeleteFunny how all the NATO types figure they have the answers to everything, even in a country they know nothing about, that they'll talk to some people, not others, as if they were choosing sides for volleyball.
There has got to be a better way, and it includes consulting with people like Malalai Joya.
Here is the weird thing.
ReplyDeleteNow NATO says that the bomb that killed the 12 civilians was [INTENTIONAL]. In other words it was a target, the bomb DID NOT veer off.
WOW.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/02/16/nato-changes-story-house-full-of-afghan-civilians-deliberately-hit/
ReplyDeleteThis is monstrous. Apparently, the use of this weapon (truck mounted guided rocket) has to be approved at the highest level. This was no mistake.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they hoped there wouldn't be much evidence left.
I left a comment about Gareth Porter's take on Marja on your site. If this is all theatre and the dead civilians are just expendable props, it's a crime.
They audit themselves. Why is no one holding these people accountable?
ReplyDelete