Yesterday U.S. troops in Kandahar opened fire on a civilian bus, killing at least five, wounding at least eighteen, with the death toll expected to rise.
The bus driver and a passenger told the New York Times a US convoy opened fire just as the bus began pulling over to the side of the road to allow another military convoy to pass. The bus was said to be full of civilian passengers when US troops opened fire. All of the windows on one side of the bus were shot out. Some of the wounded were left in critical condition, and the death toll could rise.
Soon thereafter, video showed hundreds of Afghans taking to the streets, shouting "Death to America"—burning tires and railing against Karzai as well.
Of course, this occurs on the eve of the newest offensive in this war. In the coming weeks, thousands of troops will be moving into the Kandahar region, the spiritual home of the Taliban. All I can say is if yesterday’s incident is some kind of foreshadowing of the upcoming offensive, I can only pray it’s not as bloody as I fear.
The Taliban also launched suicide attacks yesterday morning in front of Afghan intelligence agencies, injuring workers and civilians. So, it doesn’t look like they’re laying down their arms any time soon—the president’s stated hope for the upcoming Kandahar offensive.
NATO’s response to yesterday’s incident?—the usual "tragic loss of life" and the launch of yet another investigation. The New York Times did report NATO’s specific excuse (given immediately unlike other incidents): it was early morning, so the soldiers could not tell if the bus was a threat.
The governor of Kandahar Province, Tooryalai Wesa, didn’t seem too convinced. He has asked for the commander of the offending military convoy to be prosecuted under military law. He wondered why the soldiers couldn’t just shoot out the tires of the bus rather than kill the people inside. Good question.
I wondered the same thing the other day when 5 police shot 42 rounds into a get-away car in Florida, killing not only the car thief, but wounding his kidnapped passenger whose two children were in the back seat. Last I heard, the 2-year-old was still in critical condition. Why couldn't they just shoot out the tires? They were "brown" people too, but that couldn't be it, could it?
Meanwhile, more than 40 Afghans have been killed, 80 wounded, in convoy and checkpoint shootings since last summer. At least 596 civilians have been killed this year, but as as McChrystal said a short time ago
However, to my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I’ve been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it. [emphasis added]
Yesterday’s incident, along with the Feb. 12 admitted cover-upof the killing of two pregnant women (one of 10 children, the other of 6), another woman, a local police chief, and a district prosecutor, can’t be helping the effort to win Afghan "hearts and minds."
It is disturbing that since McChrystal’s takeover of special forces, as of March 27, 2010, things don’t seem to be improving. This statement below that special forces had no oversight seems unacceptable, to me, but then again, what do I know?
These special forces were not accountable to anyone in the country, but General McChrystal and we carried the burden of the guilt for the mistakes they committed," he said. "Whenever there was some problem with the special forces we didn’t know who to go to, it was muddled and unclear who was in charge.
I suppose this official and General McChrystal carry the "guilt" for the Feb. 21 incident in Oruzgan Province, when a small Special Operations forces unit, believing Taliban were on their way called for air support. Attack helicopters proceeded tokill 27 civilians in three trucks, mistaking them for the Taliban.
It’s pretty shocking when a NATO official says: "It was one of the worst things I’ve seen in a while . . . Military video appeared to show the victims were civilians, and no weapons were recovered from them. ‘What I saw on that video would not have led me to pull the trigger,’ one NATO official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with his department’s rules."
Well, maybe it's just another day in the "fog of war," per Secretary Gates, regarding the wikileaks video incident on Sunday on ABC:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates: They’re in a combat situation. The video doesn’t show the broader picture of the—of the firing that was going on at American troops. It’s obviously a hard thing to see. It’s painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. But you—you talked about the fog of war. These people were operating in split-second situations. And, you know, we—we’ve investigated it very thoroughly.
Apparently, there is another wikileaks video on the way, apparently showing the massacre of some 86 civilians. Do you think the Afghan people, in the ninth year of war, the longest war in our history, are reaching the tipping point?
Or do you think they've settled into the long war too?
I, for one, will continue to pray, every day, that our president reaches his full potential. At the same time, I'll take this chance, right here, right now, to kindly remind him of my signature/his quote below:
"[K]now that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy." -Barack Obama