U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles, like the ones shown here, helped provide 176 consecutive hours of air support and drop more than 100 bombs in support of Operation Hammer Down II. (Tech. Sgt. Michael B. Keller/Air Force)
The Intercept: Report: U.S. Military Rarely Visits Bomb Sites or Talks to Survivors When Investigating Civilian Deaths
It was the midpoint of a 10-month battle to dislodge the Islamic State from the Iraqi city of Mosul. Two ISIS snipers were holed up in a “defensive fighting position built into the second story of the structure” in the al-Resala district of Mosul’s al-Jadidah neighborhood. Iraqi troops were taking casualties and asked their American allies for help. “At 0824 on 17 March, 2017, in accordance with the applicable rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict, a coalition U.S. aircraft delivered a single GBU-38 precision guided munition against two ISIS snipers,” U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Matthew Isler said in the wake of the strike.
Everything was done by the book. The target was an enemy stronghold and the strike seemed precise and flawless — except that it wasn’t. Col. Mohammad Shumari, an Iraqi official working in the area, later told CNN that 141 bodies had been removed from the attack site after the American smart bomb detonated explosives stored by ISIS inside the building. The dead included between 137 and 140 civilians, including women and children, according to Isler.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: Count me as one of those who has always been skeptical on civilian casualty numbers. The above report by Nick Turse should not surprise anyone.
"U.S. Military Rarely Visits Bomb Sites Or Talks To Survivors When Investigating Civilian Deaths"
ReplyDeleteThey are bombing targets, because the infantry has a hard time to get there if they can get there at all.
DUH!
Perhaps accepting responsibility for the deaths of innocents during strikes such as described might encourage those who approve of instigating wars for no good reason, other than to support the WIC of course, to not.
ReplyDeleteThere you go again with your WIC meme.
ReplyDeleteIn the early 1990s there was humorous if trenchant joke. Before Desert Storm, the last time the reserves were committed was during the the 1968 NYC Blizzard. What did reservists expect. To be called up for general war in Europe if the Soviets went over the line into West Germany.
We did not expect it to be fun or to survive. Read "Red Storm Rising", but without the happy ending. But we are not like you. We are not part of the better Red than Dead crowd." We are not cheek-parters like your ilk.
Lots of money was spent. You can spend lots of money on training instead of hardware and make money on it and people do to this day. You do not have to sell hard ware to make money. There is the service industry. Even you Bob as befuddled as an Elmer Fudd pud that you are might have heard of it.
We did not hear any talk of we hope the people 3 levels up start a war. We were happy to train, collect a check, and step up if the Big one came.
Now to the specific war in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda declared war on the US in the mid 1990s. You (& Good times rapist Bill Clinton) might have missed it being a troll that recently crawled out from under a rock, but the Taliban surely didn't. Then Al Qaeda attacked us in Kenya, Tanzania, Yemen and finally the US mainland. The Taliban refused to extradite the Al Qaeda leader.
No nebulous WIC conspirator that you dreamed up in your fervid mind Made Osama do what he did. Osama did it gratis. Gratis means free of charge you dumbass troll.
You are really an annoying or contemptible person.
and you, misfit, are a good deal worse
ReplyDelete1. when did we go into Afghanistan?
2. Why did we go?
3. why when we had nearly finished the job with the Taliban did we divert our forces to....?
4. who was in charge that did this?
"Better dead than red."? That is just an expression of it day.
ReplyDeleteGiven what Trump has done so far to scrap the Constitution and whatever justice was left in the country you may pretty much already there. Being dead and red. I give it two years after Trump's re-election and storm troopers will be busting down your door likely for something you said when you were 10.
You indeed are a very sad person with no life except to deride strangers.
People, especially members of powerful nations, you know, patriots and all that, rarely ever condemn war crimes. Germany is perhaps the only country in the world that apologised for their atrocities and much of the world thanked them by forgetting and ignoring even larger war crimes committed in Russia and China and USA@Vietnam.. the Vietnamese by the way don't call it the Vietnam war. They were invaded. They call it the American war. Just so you know. People who travel understand war crimes more than those who don't. So Americans, who still barely travel and have the strongest military (arguably by power but certainly by spending) combined with hyperpatriotism - much like we see in China and to some extend in Russia - creates these monsters of ignorance who cannot do bad and if you even think they might have and there's evidence for it, you're vilified and put on watch lists, while you in fact are a true patriot trying to better a country and not ignore its many faults.
ReplyDelete3. why when we had nearly finished the job with the Taliban did we divert our forces to....?
ReplyDeleteWe were never going to finish off the Taliban with the Pakistani government having a policy of providing them with safe haven, training, supplies, funding and intel.
Now, aren't you embarrassed?
No, you are not, because you are a partisan hack and an ignorant person. You are proof that a shiny sheepskin does not make a person wise or knowledgeable.
There never was no good reason to go to Afghanistan and as for Iraq, there was never a good reason to go to Iraq. All of which was the point of my post.
ReplyDelete"There never was no good reason to go to Afghanistan and as for Iraq,"
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious that you are a troll or simply wrong.
ReplyDelete"