That may be overstating it, but I'm sure the deaths of nine children from AC-130 gunfire seems that way to Afghans. All to kill a mid-level Taliban leader that the DOD can't really connect to actual terrorist acts. You'd think they'd try to capture some of these guys.
Interesting;y, while the military says they killed their man, reports from Afghanistan variously say that:
1. It wasn't him
2. He got away
3. He was never in the village to begin with.
So it's quite possible that we not only missed the target (if he was there), but we have a bunch of inoocent kids killed by stray rounds from one of the most powerful aircraft flying.
This is a Rules Of Engagement issue. The Air Force says that they didn't know there were kids playing in the area, but that doesn't excuse the fact that they used 20 mm cannon, and 40 mm cannon, and a howitzer from an airplane for the attack. There's very little chance that you can use those weapons in a village without causing civilian casualties. These are not precision weapons. Its the same thing as using the 120 mm gun on a tank within a crowded city.
If we suspect there's someone we need to kill or capture, we should be sending in ground troops that speak Farsi and Arabic to pick the guys up, after verifying that it is indeed ther right person. We've had problems with that on the ground, too, but it's a lot more likely that from an orbiting aircraft.
This is just common sense. We should be going out of our way to do things exactly the right way so we don't create additional enemies. That's the only way to create a better Afghanistan for everyone involved.
Posted by Chris at December 9, 2003 12:44 PM