NATO releases information stating that they had killed five civilians in a night time raid. Trying to cover for them selves they stated that it was a mistaken "Honor killing". I feel that the reason we have women, men, and children over there fighting for our freedom is not because of civilian work of terrorism. These people are trying to live a life in a poverty struck en environment and shouldn't be used as target practice. These people are loosing family members left and right some involved with the acts of terrorism and some just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Our leader should have more power controlling the people innocently being killed by the acts of poorly advised soldiers. I honor the men and women of the United States armed services but there are different ways to deal with stubborn individuals or people that have bad days. We as Americans see people on an everyday basis that are out of hand and rude for no reason but we are not out there taking there lives for a days worth of small mistakes. Also military officials should be ashamed of there efforts to cover up the killing of civilians shot execution style tied up and gagged. The officials stated that this was a custom burial ritual after a family member was found dead. To me this seems like more lies to cover the cruel acts of some American civilians. There is a clear difference between someone that has been nicely covered after a murder or death, to someone that has been tightly tied from the back of the head were the wound was to the inside of the lips. This to me is a embarrassment of the American solider in the eyes of the people around the conflict.
http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com
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Slightly different perspective....
ReplyDeleteDear Novelist,
I found your April 5, 2010 Civilian Casualties in Afganistan? article to be disturbing, yet informative. Although it astonished me to read the released statements from NATO regarding the five Afganistan civilians that were killed, I take a slightly different perspective (than you) on how I prefer our American soldiers treat the Afganistan civilians.
I, too, honor our men and women who are serving our country overseas. If anything, I feel I am more compassionate to what they are experiencing than what you consider, “bad days.” The Afganistan, “stubborn individuals” you describe are in no way short of what I consider TERRORISTS. Our trained combatants are there to “destroy the enemy,” and repair what is left of the Afganistan nation. They are not there to decipher which of the terrorists is having a, “bad day,” and which of those choose to willingly cooperate.
I openly choose to share with you a personal experience that was once shared with me from a dear friend who had served in Afganistan. Although the words did not come easily, he found the courage to explain the situation in which causes his incessant nightmares. He went on to tell me about a mission he and his platoon were sent to complete. He was given a name of specific terrorists in the area and was told to, “do away with them.” To my friend, this task sounded easy enough, until the terrorists were located, and were found positioned in the middle of a bus full of innocent civilians; men, women, and children.
My friend describes this as being the worst predicament of his life. His mission told him to destroy the terrorists, while his conscience told him not to proceed while innocent civilians were involved. As I am not in a position to consider this an encouraging or unenthusiastic predicament, the terrorists detonated a bomb destroying themselves along with all the others. The sight of burning bodies, flesh, and scent will impede my friends’ memory forever.
With all of that being said, I feel the need to earnestly express my distaste for your judgment on our U.S. soldiers. Their mistaking five innocent civilians for possible threats is nothing short of self defense, and I think you shaping it as a deceiving, "target practice," is repulsive and absurd. Our soldiers are overseas attempting nothing but GOOD for the Afganistan people, and unfortunately, mishaps will happen while our country is in the process of trying to rebuild a nation for them. If there is any embarassment to be shown, I believe it should be yours rather than our brave American soldiers'.
Sincerely,
Your critic
INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
ReplyDeleteI want to begin by addressing the statement that "we have women, men, and children over there fighting for our freedom". Suffice it to say, the U.S. military does not employ children to fight or serve otherwise. So I am not sure if the post is addressing the freedom of the Afghan people and their use of children to fight, it is not clear.
War by its very nature is cruel and there is always collateral damage and loss of innocent life. Our leaders do not have the power to control who lives and who dies. Entering a war zone and certainly firing missiles into an area is only done with intelligence data. As human nature is flawed that data can be flawed, as we see by the loss of civilian life in Kabul at this celebration. Proclaiming to honor the men and women in the military while accusing them of using civilians as target practice may appear contradictory. The leaders are men and women of the United Armed Services also, they too risk their lives for the freedom of the American as well as Afghan people. I have read through the reference blog associated with this post and found that the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) are concerned about why the facts given by the U.S. and Afghans differ so greatly.
ISAF officials were not trying to cover for themselves, they were stating facts as presented to them. When it became apparent these facts were erroneous, NATO retracted the information on "honor killings" and issued statements with new information uncovered by additional investigation. Ironically, the account in the article comes from a member of the family of the victims. This family member fails to denounce NATO's actions but instead indicates he and local officials believed the killings were an act of tribal rivalry and that the international forces were fed false information.
It is because of these mixed accounts that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who oversees all U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, has ordered a second investigation into the deaths of the civilians killed during this nighttime raid.
The U.S. military will prosecute when wrongdoing is proven. However, they also stand by the men and women of the U.S. military as well. As part of the International Security Assistance Force, they stand by the entire team. The morale of our fighting forces depend on it. The death of these civilians is not an embarrassment, it is heartbreaking. The military should know that what they are doing is valuable and right and just but never an embarrassment.