Pentagon Plans Training to Cut Airstrike Deaths

From Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON -- A long-awaited Pentagon report on a deadly American airstrike in western Afghanistan recommends that U.S. forces receive better training on how to minimize civilian casualties, but rejects Kabul's claim that more than 140 civilians were killed in the incident.

The report, to be released Thursday, follows an internal military investigation into the U.S. assault on the remote village of Granai in early May. Washington and Kabul have feuded publicly for weeks over the incident, which has intensified resentment in Afghanistan toward the U.S.-led war effort.

Those tensions could be pushed higher by the report's conclusion that about 30 civilians died in the incident. The report estimates that at least 65 Taliban militants died in the strike.

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My Comment: The sad fact of any war is that civilian casualties will always be the result of it .... and Afghanistan is no exception to this rule. I give credit to the Pentagon in trying their best to minimize these occurrences, but I doubt that "extra" training will change this situation. U.S. pilots already receive a considerable amount of training and are closely monitored on most (if not all) bombing mission .... the men who are on the ground and who coordinate these strikes are also monitored and well trained.

But I guess there is always room for improvement .... and we can only hope that this review will find procedures and/or tactics that can be changed that will result in the killing of the enemy and not the innocents who are caught in the crossfire.