With a slight retraction. Some of you wrote and said that I was taking the official line hook line and sinker. Yeah, well I suppose even an old salt like me falls for the the old "slightly made up" narrative that lives in our MSM.
So I find this little piece, hidden away that you won't see elsewhere. Suicide bombers hit the checkpoint and I assumed it was so crowded that all the afghans Killed (170?) were as a result of the blast as well. Hell, all headlines never seemed to say much else. Instead, you get this bit of info where most of the Afghanis killed were killed by coalition soldiers shooting after the fact (turks and US from the sounds of it[1]). Again, most killed were by us. Could it have been fear? Maybe. Most likely that "fuck them all" energy that exists in many hearts of the troops (note, I'm the type who thinks that those at the bottom should get minimal blame while those up top, generals and the contractors getting 💰 get the most). [2]
But if you read the headlines, nothing on that.
Then the Drone attack I mentioned. Again, I did say if the facts backed the official account. They don't.
To the Ahmadis and their neighbours, claims that the attack had targeted a potential ISKL car bomber is infuriating.“We are all Afghan, we know what a car laden with explosives would do if it was struck from the sky,” said Abdol Matin, a neighbour who grew up with the Ahmadi children and saw the boys as brothers. Like so many others gathered in the Ahmadi residence, Abdol Matin does not buy Washington’s claim that they had conducted a precise strike on an enemy target.
btw, these people seem as innocent as possible. Like, they wanted to come here (so I suppose that the right wingers out there will cheer this on):
Zemarai’s other brother, Romal, who was also away at the time of the attack, had worked as a driver at the Ministry of Water and Energy. The men’s time with the government and affiliation with foreign forces had earned the family a Special Immigrant Visa offered by the US.
“They worked for private companies. They served in the military. They were part of the government, what would make anyone think they’re terrorists,” said Aimal.
So now, people see why being called a terrorist after being wrongfully targeted can get to them:
“All the media outlets repeated Joe Biden’s statement that the targets were Daesh without questioning it,” he said referring to the Arabic name for the ISIL armed group.
Feroz says that from the start of the US invasion through to its final days, Washington and its allies have been trying to “convince the Afghan people that these aerial attacks are only killing terrorists but now, in Kabul, we are seeing their true costs.”
tbf, I'm guessing our military wants to prolong this war. What better way than to target random people to get them to retaliate? Meanwhile on the main stream comment threads, everyone thinks it was a bomb that was hit that killed the kids and family and some are even bringing up that propagandistic movie, Eye in the Sky (which I wrote about here) as, "wow just like real life".
No one bringing what this article does:
Despite officials' claims that the drone assassination program is highly precise and targeted at militants, U.S. strikes have killed hundreds of Afghan civilians in recent years. According to documents leaked by former Air Force intelligence analyst Daniel Hale—who was sentenced to nearly four years in prison last month—nearly 90% of the people killed during one five-month period of a U.S. drone operation in Afghanistan were not the intended targets.
90%. So our vaunted intel etc, bullied our POTUS to launch another attack. An addict who just wants one more hit. And like the previous 20 years, we did it all wrong again. But give them more money cause they'll get it right sooner or later.
So my apologies to all of you.
[1] Absolute random aside, but I've heard Vietnam vets say the war there got really dirty when Turkish troops came in and started some crazy abuses (and the Vietcong started to reciprocate). Not that I entirely believe that we were angels before that, or that we weren't already teaching that logic (or the French hadn't either). Just an anecdotal point.
[2] Interestingly enough, there are plenty of issues to discuss when it comes to Afghanistan and the idea of war, but this piece shares some of my points.
