Misplaced Anger

On August 21, NATO and Afghan ground forces in the western Afghanistan village of Nawabad called in an airstrike. The US casualty figures were listed as thirty killed, including their target, the high-ranking Taliban leader Mullah Siddiq. Five more were detained, and a cache of weapons and ammunition were discovered in the compound. Seven or eight houses were destroyed as a result, and several others were damaged.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry spokesman, Gen. Mohammad Zaher Azimi, later added that five of the thirty were civilians. Then it got even more interesting when the Afghan Interior Ministry called the attack a “mistake.” The ministry claimed 76 killed, including 19 women and 50 children under 15.

Although the US military is launching an investigation, they are still standing behind their figures. US military spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green said, “We stand by our account and our reports and what we know and I can’t reconcile why (the Interior Ministry) would have a different figure.”

Now, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has found what it calls “convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men,” according to the UN Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide. The human rights group also determined that 15 more were wounded.

This comes from the same organization that brought us the multi-billion dollar oil-for-food scandal, and also from the organization that has admitted to “cooking the books” on health and global warming figures. And the same organization that allows the terrorist army Hezbollah to operate freely despite two resolutions requiring their disarmament. I wouldn’t trust the UN any further than I could throw ‘em.

One also has to figure in the trustworthiness of the locals that were interviewed. Are they Taliban supporters, or perhaps Taliban themselves? Plus, it is nothing new for the Jihadists to stage a massacre. And it’s not at all hard to turn a hard core Jihad warrior into an innocent civilian casualty – take away an AK-47 from a body, and presto! Reaping the rewards of non-uniformed combatants.

The hype has apparently got to Afghanistan’s president Hamid Karzai, who is now saying that airstrikes only kill innocent Afghanis. His spokesman, Humayun Hamidzada also said, “The patience of the Afghan people has ran out. We no longer can afford to see the killing of our children.”

Afghanistan’s government is upset at NATO. But is that where the anger truly needs to be directed, at the group of foreign countries that are making great sacrifices for the benefit of the free people of Afghanistan?

For almost seven years, NATO countries, with the US shouldering most of the burden, have spent billions of dollars and have lost almost 1,000 lives in Afghanistan. That country went from being a terrorist breeding ground to holding its own elections in three years. What do we ask in return? Nothing.

Jihadists however, use civilian deaths to their advantage. It’s a win-win situation for them. They operate amongst civilians – the more the merrier, because every now and then, they get one heck of a propaganda piece. In fact, civilian casualties are actually more beneficial to their cause than killing our troops.

Why are tensions increasing between Karzai and the US, and not Mullah Omar or Beitullah Mehsud? It’s not the US who forces these thugs to operate amongst civilians. There have been no calls for the Taliban or Al Qaeda to stop operating amongst civilians, only calls for us good guys to stop attacking the bad guys. All this does is send a clear message to our enemies that their tactics are working.