The only part of the "GWOT" with any legitimacy, though no more competence than the Iraqi invasion, is the effort in Afghanistan. So let's fuck that up...
A preliminary U.S. military investigation indicates that more than 40 Afghans killed or wounded by Marines after a suicide bombing in a village near Jalalabad last month were civilians, the U.S. commander who ordered the probe said yesterday.
At least Abu Gonzales will have some competition for the headlines next week...
Maj. Gen. Frank H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, also said there is no evidence that the Marine Special Operations platoon came under small-arms fire after the bombing, although the Marines reported taking enemy fire and seeing people with weapons. The troops continued shooting at perceived threats as they traveled miles from the site of the March 4 attack, he said. They hit several vehicles, killing at least 10 people and wounding 33, among them children and elderly villagers.
"We found . . . no brass that we can confirm that small-arms fire came at them," Kearney said, referring to ammunition casings. "We have testimony from Marines that is in conflict with unanimous testimony from civilians at the sites," Kearney said in a telephone interview from his headquarters in Qatar, where he oversees all U.S. Special Operations forces in the region, including in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Failure of leadership has become a hallmark of the Bush Maladministration, from giving China a spy plane in the first test they faced back in 2001, to the failure to prevent 9/11, allowing Osama to escape from Tora Bora, Abu Ghraib, Haditha, it goes on endlessly. It now affects even the most ëlite"elements of our military. For decades the Marines refused to field a "Special Operations" unit, maintaining that the entire Corps was "Special", but the budgetary largesse they were missing out on after 9/11 proved too much for them. They certainly are getting started with a bang...