That is my impression after reading a report on the wire from the Associated Press, which I will get to in a minute.
Several weeks ago I wrote about how Hamid Karzai seemed to be trying to kill the Taliban with kindness. I also wrote towards the end of that article that "Hamid Karzai is using the West to be bad cop to his good cop". More and more, I think that story is absolutely true.
Were those insurgents killed or were they civilians? There's a fog to war, and especially so in an unconventional war such as the one taking place in Afghanistan. The Taliban peddle in propaganda, U.S./NATO COIN strategy has a big emphasis on perception, and some may say that "those dead insurgents over there are our relatives"- or something. But this story from the Associated Press is just confusing as all hell at first glance.
An initial statement said the joint force searching the compound made a "gruesome discovery" - the bodies of three women who had been bound, gagged and killed. The bodies had been hidden in an adjacent room, the statement said.
But a second statement several hours later said the joint force found the bound and gagged bodies of two women and two dead men. There was no explanation for the initial discrepancy.
That was what NATO said.
However, relatives of the dead accused American forces of being responsible for the deaths of all five people when contacted by The Associated Press by phone.
A man who identified himself as Hamidullah said he had been in the home as some 20 people gathered to celebrate the birth of a son when a group of men he described as "U.S. special forces" surrounded the compound.
Pretty contradictory, huh? Hamidullah claimed someone went outside to ask what was going on and was promptly shot dead. So what about these bound and gagged women found dead?
Then you have the Afghan government official. This is when I return to the "Afghans using us as their bad cop to their good cop" theory;
"Last night, the Americans conducted an operation in a house and killed five innocent people, including three women. The people are so angry," he said.
Ahadi said the operation had not included any Afghan forces, saying "The government didn't know about this."
The investigation didn't even happen yet! Not the NATO forensic investigation nor the team just sent by the Interior Minister in Kabul. An Afghan police chief confirmed the discovery of bound and gagged men and women who were killed. Does anyone else find it hard to believe that NATO forces operating under COIN would bind, gag, and then execute women? But to digress- I can tell you what the Interior Ministry team will likely say; "we didn't know anything about this and it's all the Americans' fault". Why? Because those incompetent and corrupt jerks would rather make someone look bad to make themselves look better- it's easier than actually correcting their incompetence and reforming their corruption.
(Note: This diary does not mean to weigh in on whether the residents or NATO are right about what really happened but rather to focus on the strategy of Afghan bureaucrats and politicians as it pertains to foreign forces.)