As Obama's strategy for Afghanistan takes shape and the new commanders (well, not so much new as reassigned or given a good talking to) hit the ground running, let's find out how things are going. The Taliban spring offensive is underway, the levels of violence have never been higher, April set a record for airstrikes and corresponding civilian casualties, disputed and unsubstantiated of course. Tens of thousands of American soldiers are pouring in to the most volatile areas, pushing deep into Taliban controlled territory and setting forward operating bases where their job will be to draw constant fire.
In historic times like these, it's important to pay attention to what is happening so that we may more fully appreciate the brilliance of our Commander in Chief in escalating and conducting this war. This edition of the Chronicles answers such important and interesting questions as: What's the deal with constant overblown Afghan claims regarding civilian casualties? Who is the new commander, Gen. McChrystal and why is he awesome? How are our troops feeling? and Where is the Taliban getting its weapons? Would you like to know more?
- The Farah May 4 airstrike
As you may recall, on May 4, an American B1 bomber and several F-18s dropped bombs on 13 buildings, including the two main clan compounds and the mosque, in two adjacent villages in the western Farah province which borders Iran and has in the past not been considered to be a Taliban stronghold. The airstrikes came after a force of Taliban numbering as many as 300 entered these villages and then ambushed and pinned down Afghan forces attempting to drive them out. The Afghan government forces took minor casualties, and an American medic was also wounded. These facts have now been confirmed by a preliminary US investigation. The results of these airstrikes are disputed.
The villagers maintain that several hours after the main Taliban force melted away at nightfall, during the night as the villagers huddled in the main clan compounds in the village of Garani for protection, the Americans dropped a barrage of bombs (13 by the American count) on the village, leveling the clan compounds and burying hundreds of people alive, resulting in 25 Taliban and 140 civilians dead, 60 of whom were women and an unknown number were children. The Afghan government confirmed these numbers and paid the survivors compensation. In case you are wondering, the going rate is $2,000 for each person killed and $1,000 for each one injured.
A U.N. group trying to conduct an independent evaluation was not given an American escort to the site and was unable to investigate. A Red Cross team sent to the site, being anti-American, confirmed the Afghan version of events. The US has now concluded its own interrim investigation, which relied mostly on aerial photos from the bombing planes and the questioning of villagers by imperial officials. Although the US report admits that it is preliminary and that exact counts of civilian casualties have not been achieved, it nevertheless goes on to reject the Afghan account and propose that "at least 20-30 civilians may have been killed" and as many as 65 insurgents. Now the phrase "at least" implies that there may be many more, but the US military went out of its way to dismiss the Afghan count anyway.
Now, the countless previous incidents in which the US has disputed and minimized the casualties inflicted by their airstrikes after doing everything it could to drag out the investigative process have created a well of bitterness among the Afghans. President Karzai has repeatedly called on the US to refrain from using heavy munitions against villages.
Now it's the Obama Administration's war, naturally we are more sensitive to such concerns. The US Ambassador to Afghanistan, who is also the former military commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan under Bush, showed his sensitive side and went so far as to leave his compound in order to convey his dismay, taking Karzai with him.
During their visit to the region on Tuesday, President Karzai and General Eikenberry did not visit the village of Granai, where the bombing occurred, and they did not stay for lunch, which is the accepted custom in Afghanistan, possibly because of security concerns.
General Eikenberry was clear in acknowledging the civilian suffering and expressing his sympathy.
"This incident began with your brave police and army, together with their American partners, battling the Taliban," he said in a speech, released later by the United States Embassy in Kabul. "But it ended in a terribly tragic way, with loss of civilian lives as well as your policemen.
"I assure the people of Afghanistan that the United States will work tirelessly with your government, army and police to find ways to reduce the price paid by civilians, and avoid tragedies like what occurred in Bala Baluk," he said. "As U.S. ambassador, and with my previous experience as a soldier, I make this a solemn pledge."
On a personal note, Eikenberry said in a telephone interview with the Times that he questioned the wisdom of dropping 2,000-pound bombs on houses when it is unknown who might be inside, and the trade-off between the short-term gain of eliminating enemy fighters and the larger danger of alienating the general population. Such probing self-evaluation by good hearted American soldier/statesmen is really what makes this country great. But what makes this country awesome is its remarkable will to do what is necessary to kill as many people as possible even in the face of its own declared principles. The statement by the local American commander Col. Greg Julian accompanying the interim report made this moral struggle clear:
"We regret the loss of civilian life and express our condolences to the families who lost loved ones in this fighting with insurgents firing from and regrouping in villagers’ homes."
See, we know that there are insurgents, and that they are in civilians' homes. If we don't kill the civilians, potentially several dozen low level Taliban fighters who we can kill right there and then might get away. Obviously American soldiers are simply too brave to walk away from a fight just because it might result in the deaths of dozens of innocents, and the Taliban are not going to stop going into Afghan villages, especially since a lot of them actually live in those. So what is one to do? While the Obama Administration has made clear that airstrikes will go on, the fourteenth review of bombing tactics is underway, and, good news, some wiggle room in how many villages we target with 2,000 pound bombs may be possible! Elections do have consequences it seems:
Air power would still be required in cases when coalition troops needed help and were under attack, but a revised approach might be possible when it comes to offensive operations, Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
And it really boils down to are we on defense or are we on offence? And on defense, I don't think we should make any changes.
"We need to protect our troops," Gates said, when asked whether an influx of more than 21,000 US troops might reduce the demand for air strikes.
"But if we're on offence, that's where I think we need to take a closer look at the operational concept and our planning and how we're going forward with this in a way to minimize the chance of innocent civilian casualties."
I hope the families of those 20-30 civilians killed and the families of the other 110 liars pretending to be dead and buried take note. Their Great Father in Washington, Obama, is listening, and it is possible, that when the US is assaulting villages filled with civilians whom we are trying to liberate, protect, civilize and ennoble, we will "take a closer look at the operational concept and our planning and how we're going forward."
In what can only be described as an unfortunate coincidence and not in any way a part of a relentless pattern of callous disregard, an airstrike killed 8 more civilians on the day this interim report was released.
- McKiernan v. McChrystal
For the first time since MacArthur was sacked for insubordination by Truman, a wartime commander has been dismissed by the President. A mere 8 months after beginning his command, General David McKiernan is out, to be replaced with Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal. For all of those who make negative inferences based on the fact that President Obama kept intact the entire Bush era military leadership team, this scapegoat’s for you! But is this just another case of you can't trust a Scotsman, or what's going on here? Much speculation has taken place.
Gen. McChrystal is a Special Forces guy, and commanded the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) from 2003 to 2008. Now some on this site may know JSOC as Cheney's executive assassination squad, in the words of journalist Seymour Hersh. JSOC is a combination of many of the various military service's top special operators, i.e., commandos, including the Delta Force, which Cheney used during his tenure to conduct off the books assassinations and torture.
"It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us."
This is of course the type of paranoid lefty ranting that Obama is so good at rising above of and finding a bipartisan solution to. McChrystal's more relevant claim to fame is that he ran the Special Forces in Iraq under Petreaus during the surge, using innovative tactics and real time intelligence sharing to assassinate much greater numbers of people than ever before, including the biggest prize of all, Abu Musab Zarqawi, leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. He's an assassin's assassin, in other words, making Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now look like the grocery clerk Marlon Brando always maintained he was. And given the evident plan for Afghanistan, which will rely heavily on small unit fighting, infiltration into Taliban-controlled territory (which now encompasses 70 percent of Afghanistan) and assassination of Taliban leaders on both sides of the Afghan Pakistan border, he seems like the right man to run Obama's escalation. His appointment has even raised the hopes that we will, this time, actually get Bin Laden, thereby possibly preventing 9/11. So here we are getting both change and hope for the price of one.
- And how are our troops doing?
Anybody who is familiar with my writings here knows that my chief concern is how our heroes in uniform are doing. There they are, over there, protecting our freedoms, and all we can here is blog about it and pray for their souls, so it's not so much to ask that periodically, we check in and see how they are doing.
Well, good news, they are feeling no pain thanks to American science and knowhow.
According to data from a U. S. Army mental-health survey released last year, about 12 percent of soldiers in Iraq and 15 percent of those in Afghanistan reported taking antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, or sleeping pills. Data from the Department of Defense last fall showed that as of September 2007, prescriptions for narcotics for active-duty troops had risen to almost 50,000 a month, compared with about 33,000 a month in October 2003, not long after the Iraq war began.
Concerned that thousands of American fighters armed with the latest killing technology are taking prescription drugs that the Federal Aviation Administration considers too dangerous for commercial pilots? Don't be:
Military officials say they believe many medications can be safely used on the battlefield. They say they have policies to ensure that drugs they consider inappropriate for soldiers on the front lines are rarely used. And they say they are not using the drugs in order to send unstable warriors back to war.
The Marine Corps has procedures to ensure that service members taking medications for psychiatric conditions are deployed only if their symptoms are in remission.
- Where's the Taliban getting its weapons?
Did you ever wonder where a landlocked insurgency assailed on all sides by superior forces would the tons and tons of ammo and small arms it needs to sustain the insurgency? Same place as the Mexican drug carters do. USA! USA! Now that Obama is in charge though, progress is being made.
The Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, the American-led unit tasked with training and supplying Afghan forces, said it had made accountability of all Afghan police and military property a top priority, and taken steps to locate and log rifles issued even years ago. The Pentagon has created a database of small arms issued to Afghan units.
I feel better, don't you? We're going to win this war, beat back the commies and the Islamofascists, and make the world safe for democracy. Again.