I wrote about the somewhat overlooked bombing of an Afghan wedding party a couple of days ago and it got little attention.
Yes, we were in the throes of celebration, yet we must remember that the Obama administration is inheriting this nightmare.
And now we have this: Investigation into deadly U.S. air strike widens
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — An investigation that is expected to uncover details surrounding a deadly air strike by U.S. forces on a remote village north of Kandahar earlier this week was broadened Thursday to include three separate Afghan government agencies.
Air strikes have taken their toll on the Afghan civilian population
In the past three months alone, more than 100 civilians have died in air strikes in southern Afghanistan. In 2007, human-rights groups measured a threefold increase in the number of civilian deaths from aerial attacks.
Consequently, the "Death from above" raining down on towns and villages has devastated the goodwill extended to international troops.
Erica Gaston, a Kabul-based fellow with the aid organization Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, said civilian casualties are having a "huge impact" on levels of hostility toward international forces in Kandahar, where many victims from outlying areas are brought for hospital treatment.
"In areas that have had a lot of incidents like this and have had a lot more civilian casualties in air strikes, particularly where troops haven't made the effort to investigate properly and make amends with the community, you're seeing increasing hostility," she said. "Folks in Kandahar see on a weekly basis this kind of treatment. They see civilians dying ... they don't see any hope that it's going to get better."
The difficulty faced by NATO forces is that the Taliban are using the civilian population as human sheilds:
He [Karzai] was told by elders in the region that Taliban insurgents planted themselves inside the village, including on some rooftops, and deliberately drew fire from coalition troops in hopes that casualties would dampen enthusiasm for coalition forces and development projects.
What does this mean? NATO must change tactics in order to eradicate the Taliban. No doubt, this would involve a full-scale occupation: more boots on the ground.
It is a nasty dilemma facing the Obama administration. To launch a new Afghan surge as Obama has said he wants to do, the president will have to woo NATO members for additional military support.
I submit to you all that Afghanistan will be a headliner for the new administration very quickly.