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Afghan Parliament Wants Law to Curb Foreign Troops
KABUL - Afghan lawmakers on Monday demanded legal restrictions on foreign forces fighting in their country, to prevent further civilian deaths, then closed for half a day to protest the latest casualties from U.S. air strikes.
An Afghan girl injured during an air strike in Garni village in western Farah province, recovers in hospital, on May 9, 2009. The United Nations said Monday that whoever was behind "significant" civilian deaths in heavy fighting and US air strikes in Afghanistan last week must be held accountable.
(AFP/Reza Shirmohammadi) The attacks on homes packed with civilians, during a protracted battle last week, have damaged ties with Washington and stoked popular anger about the presence of western troops, over rising non-combatant deaths.
Debate about innocent casualties dominated the morning's session and the delegates said they had given the government one week to come up with a way of regulating foreign fighters.
"To prevent the bombardment and killing of our people, the Wolesi Jirga (lower house) has decided the government must come up with a plan, within one week, to regulate the foreign forces," said Wolesi Jirga secretary Abdul Sattar Khawaasi.
President Hamid Karzai has already called for an end to all air strikes. His request was rebuffed by the U.S. which said commanders could not fight "with one hand tied behind our back."
But the lawmakers' demands go beyond those raised by Karzai.
"This is no longer bearable...the activities of foreign forces, their presence must be legalized. When a foreign soldier acts contrary to the law of Afghanistan, he should be prosecuted according to Afghanistan's law," Khawaasi told Reuters.
Karzai said the civilian toll from the strikes could be as high as 130, but the head of the lower house of parliament, Mohammad Younus Qanuni put it even higher, at 140.
A deputy from Farah, Mohammad Nayeem Farahi said 95 of the victims were children under 18 years old.
If Karzai's toll is confirmed, it would make the Farah strikes the single bloodiest incident for civilians since the Taliban's ouster in 2001.
The U.S. military has conceded that civilians were killed in its attack aimed at the Taliban, but has not given any figure.
"THERE WILL BE UPRISINGS"
Civilian casualties have been the main source of friction between the government of President Hamid Karzai and the foreign forces led by NATO and the U.S. military.
They have been responsible for rapidly sapping public support for the presence of western troops, at the same time that the Taliban insurgency gathered strength in the south and east.
Washington is sending an extra 17,000 soldiers in the coming months to secure Afghanistan's election and to prevent the spread of militant attacks, but have conceded that more fighting is likely to bring more bloodshed.
Lawmakers said civilian deaths caused by foreign forces are now also undermining the legitimacy of Karzai's already fragile government, risked discouraging ordinary Afghans from voting in the key presidential election in August.
Karzai won the 2004 poll, the first direct vote in Afghan history for a president, and is standing for reelection.
"If the president can not stop the killings of the innocents, how can the people trust their government or the president, and take part in the election," lawmaker Mohammad Moin Marastyal, who represents Kunduz province in Northern Afghanistan, told Reuters.
"There would be uprisings against foreign forces ... It will be the biggest problem for the presence of the international community if they do not avoid the killing of innocent people." More than 70,000 foreign troops are stationed in Afghanistan from where U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
(Editing by Emma Graham-Harrison)
31 Comments so far
Show AllThe Afghans can demand all they want. The Swinging Dicks in Warshington will do whatever they please. Afghanistan, like Spain the 1930's, is a laboratory for contemporary warfare. And nobody . . . nobody . . . tells Warshington where to head in.
odoco
An excellent and highly relevant comparison. Thanks for your usual incite.
Mordechai 11:42 ---------- Good News. I was thinking this morning,in my non violent way was that Obama should ask for McKiernan's head on a platter. And this afternoon I read Obama took McKiernan's command.
There is Hope!!!
Now if our Congress was as democratic and wise as Afghanistans Parliament we might be able to end this criminal war.
As I remember it the Taliban was offerring to send Bin Laden to a third country for trial and were going through standard extradition procedures by asking for evidence of giuilt on Osama when Afghanistan was attacked by the USA.
ONE for beleagured Karzai and almost hopeless Obama.
That's true, the taliban were making some offers about bin Laden.
er, please remind me, who is bin laden??????????????????/
He's the custodian of Saddam's WMDs.
Rainborowe
"Afghanistan, like Spain the 1930's, is a laboratory for contemporary warfare."
How true: Drones, nano-tech, infantry personal gear, information gathering/distribution, legal issues (status of "enemy non-combatants", torture, attacks on the Constitution) etc, etc, etc.
Make no mistake, the US is building these technologies and protocols for use at home, as well.
The whole world sees us for what we are;
We see ourselves as the myth we created.
And never the two shall meet,
For the reality is not the myth
and the myth is not the reality.
And only the weak, the innocent and the blind
will suffer the incongruence.
"Taliban government after it refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for the September 11 attacks on the United States." - that's news to me...
Deepa
- "CIA, ISI together created Taliban, says Zardari"
"In a new revelation, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the CIA of the United States and his country's ISI together created the Taliban.
"I think it was part of your past and our past, and the ISI and CIA created them together," Mr. Zardari told the NBC news channel in an interview.
"In the interview, which was given to the NBC on May 7, Mr. Zardari also accused the U.S. of supporting the military rule of Pervez Musharraf who was alleged to be taking sides of the Taliban."
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/001200905111116.htm
- "US hasn't met its "moral standards" in Afghanistan: Karzai"
"Smarting from frequent US air attacks and resultant "massive" civilian toll in his country, President Hamid Karzai has said America has not met its "moral standard" in Afghanistan and warned that any society will be "fed up" with such "continued casualties".
"The US has not met that standard in Afghanistan. The United States must stand on a much higher moral platform in order for us together to win this war," Mr. Karzai said in an interview to NBC News.
Pressed whether the US has not met their own moral standards and was Washington waging an "immoral war" in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said: "No. No. It's not immoral war, it's the standard of morality that we are seeking which is also one that is being desired and spoken about in America.
"In other words, are we the same as the terrorists, are we the same as the bad guys, or are we standing on a much higher moral, moral platform? Are we better human beings or not?," Mr. Karzai said.
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/001200905111983.htm
The killings of innocent people in Afghanistan and Pakistan by the inhuman Americans is to create instability in these two countries in order to pave way for the friendlier dictators to come to power in these countries, so that the US and European self-interests may be protected and promoted.
High Moral Ground, we are occupying two nations illegally and immorally.......The United States created Al Qaeda (CIA Data Base).....The Taliban were put in power by the United States and promised to hand over Bin Laden if it could prove he was responsible for 9/11......However, the FBI could find "No Proof".
The CIA started using Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of the most powerful War Lords and drug dealers in Afghanistan, in 1973......The CIA was allied with Iran's Savak and Pakistan's ISI from 1973 to 1979 destabilizing Afghanistan...From 1979 on it was Zbigniew Brzezinski and "Operation Cyclone" and "The Carter Doctrine"...Osama Bin Laden acted as an intermediary between the Saudi GID and as a money man for the CIA. Bin Laden lost lots of money in 1991 when the Bank of Credit an Commerce (BCCI) shut down in July of 1991 (BCCI was rumored to be a CIA front for "Black Operations".).....Bin Laden then used his relationship with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to deal in drugs and raise money.......
Brooklyn had been a center for Islamic Recruitment and one source of CIA money for the militants was Al Kifah and money was sent to MAK in Pakistan.......The CIA admitted that they were partly responsible for the initial attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 in a Boston Herald article, but failed to admit that Al Kifah was receiving money from them.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is a supporter of the Taliban and a leading drug dealer....The CIA provided him with all the weapons he needed for over twenty years. Today, Hamid Karzai (U.S. Puppet) is about to share power with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ( Google: Gulbuddin Hektmatyar and CIA.....Hitory Commons: Profile of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar was a good site:)
Brzezinski once asked, "Who would you rather have as an enemy, the Soviet Union or The Taliban?" A nation that creates its future enemies has no moral ground to stand on. A nation that allows almost three thousand people to be murdered so that they can invade and occupy two sovereign nations has no moral ground to stand on. A nation that fails to seek an independent investigation of the attacks of 9/11 has no moral ground to stand on. A nation that gives up the "Rule of Law" has no moral ground to stand on.
Deepa
herbert r chersonsky May 11th, 2009 5:57 pm
Thank you. Good information.
Americans need to know this.
Absent humane methods of birth control, resource and religious wars are some of the ways nature employs conservatives to balance human populations.
Ez 2:05 ------- I believe it is scientifically and agriculturely possible to feed the world, if this is true wars are just alot of pain,death and destruction.
We might at the cost of diverse, stable ecosystems. The question is for how long?
that's not 'nature'....................
God?
Deepa
ezeflyer May 11th, 2009 2:05 pm
"Absent humane methods of birth control, resource and religious wars are some of the ways nature employs conservatives to balance human populations."
Do 9/11 and Jewish holocaust come under this?????????????
Conservatives stay up nights thinking of reasons for killing each other.
They are keeping the pressure on for freedom from War.
it took JFK a few Years to find out who the real enemy was... and it was too Late for him.
How many does Obama kill before he finds out?
Yeh, dang it all! We formed the Taliban in Afghanistan as our proxy warriors, and set up Osama bin Laden to head it up and fight the occupying Russians, who finally left. Now look at what's goin' on there since 2001.
It was a good idee though, because we knew then and know now that all over the World the people are yearnin' for us to liberate them, and we respond to them quickly and fight their oppressors who "hate our freedoms" with bombs, invasions, and occupations. Coincidentally, those huddled masses whom we free are sitting on huge oil reserves or in a position for military bases from which to strike those nations whose leaders won't behave as we see fit, and this is true even in the case of duly elected leaders...just consider, for example, what happened to Mossadegh.
Jim Glover, glenn ford, and armybrat -
This Reuters news service story on Afghanistan, like one circulated in AP last week, casually parrots back an outrageous piece of recent revisionist history as though it were historical fact. It is categorically false that the Taliban government of Afghanistan was attacked by the US and overthrown "after it refused to hand over Al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for the 911 attacks on the United States" as this article declares.
Mullah Omar put an offer on the table to the Bushies (via Pakistan as diplomatic intermediary in October, 2002) to withdraw "traditional Muslim hospitality" from Osama bin Laden, Zwahiri, and other top al Qaeda figures acknowledged to be on Afghan soil, and send them away into the custody of a "neutral Muslim state", in exchange for an American pledge not to bomb and invade.
This olive branch apparently came as quite a surprise to the US State Department. The Talibans' offer was perfunctorily rejected by Secretary of State Colin Powell, the stated rationale being that the US was not going to get "bogged down in lengthy negotiations" with a regime that had a history of harboring terrorists. More to the point, this quick US diplomatic rebuff was accompanied by an announcement that the US was also putting a bounty out on Mullah Omar's head comparable to the bounties already in place for Osama and Zwahiri, wanted dead or alive. So much for exhausting your diplomatic alternatives before resorting to use of military force.
This Orwellian touch about the Taliban's purported stubborn recalcitrance is very reminiscent of how George W. Bush, and other Bush/Cheney White House sources, persisted for months in their public statements trying to completely misrepresent the spring, 2003, US/British invasion of Iraq as being a military response to Saddam Hussein's "refusal to let the UN inspectors in", and/or Saddam's "refusal to cooperate with the UN weapons inspectors." Bush actually once personally repeated this whopper whooper while standing right next to Kofi Annan, then Secretary General of the UN, at some sort of post-Mission Accomplished press event.
The true historical record, of course, is the mirror image opposite. Saddam let the UN inspectors back into Iraq, and he was working feverishly (at the urging of the French, the Russians, and others) to let them inspect to their hearts' content because there were no weapons of mass destruction there to be found. Twenty four hours before the shock and awe pageantry lit up US TV screens, the UN's WMD inspection team was evacuated out of Iraq for reasons of their own personal safety, since the air assault/ground invasion was irreversibly imminent.
Nonetheless, this fairy tale about Saddam Hussein angrily defying UN weapons inspectors kept legs of its own for quite some time. Years later, the leaked Downing Street memos revealed that "wrong footing" Saddam Hussein into refusing to let the UN inspectors back in was Tony Blair's wet dream for how a justification under international law could be concocted to "legalize" the invasion of Iraq and overthrow Saddam. The ploy did not work. But nonetheless, Saddam's defiance of UN inspectors presented such an appealing scenario this pesky shortcoming did not prevent the White House spinmeisters from clinging to the fiction, and circulating the imagery as though it were fact, for quite a period of time.
Last week, it was AP. This week, it is Reuters.
Two separate, highly respected sources of international news, each slyly slipping the same grotesque misinformation into their respective hard news coverage about events breaking in Afghanistan and Pakistan during successive news cycles, almost as if someone, somewhere had circulated a talking points memo. I'm sure it's only coincidence.
But how do you think the history books to be authored five, ten, or twenty years from now will record the true sequence of events? Where will those serious historians be looking for their source material?
Will American school kids a generation down the road be taught it was Mullah Omar and Saddam Hussein's stubborn intransigence that caused the US to invade, as a matter of last resort?
Remember the Maine.
Remember the Lusitania.
Remember the Gulf of Tonkin.
Facts indeed are stubborn things. But so are convenient myths.
Bill from Saginaw
I assumed people on this site were aware of the lies - I just wanted to point out this glaring egregious affront to reality. As for all those 'convenient myths' - Americans still think they won WWII in Europe! (Never mind Lindburgh, Ford, Prescot Bush, and the rest of the American Nazis - or the anti-Semitism prevalent in the US at the time.)
All the information you quoted was readily available to anyone who cared to know what was really going on. A person has to be pretty stupid to swallow their own country's propaganda as 'truth' - mabye that's why US isolation has been so disastrous - Americans never here alterntive perspectives, just propaganda. And they rarely question the agenda of those spouting such nonsense. At least in Europe, you hear everyone else's opinion - national borders were/are easily crossed by airwaves, even before the internet and dish-TV.
Don't forget Pearl Harbor.
"The United Nations said Monday that whoever was behind "significant" civilian deaths in heavy fighting and US air strikes in Afghanistan last week must be held accountable."
Well, It looks like it is time to add George Bush the 3rd, er um I mean OBAMA to the list of American War Criminals, Right along side of W. Bush And DICK Cheney.
I truly do hope that international Laws will bring these Imperialistic criminals to court and throw the biggest heaviest book they can get at them, lock the up, torture them, let them know what these innocent people in the middle east feel, the pain and the horrors brought on by the American WAR Machine and its sadistic leaders, the last eight years of W. Bush and now of OBAMA. (I would rather this issue be taken care of here at home, but so many of you kool-aid drinking sheep out there are too blind to see that OBAMA IS BUSH The 3rd).
Then lets install the TRUE Peace President, and END These WARS, and I am speaking of none other than RON PAUL.
Come on people, stop pretending OBAMA is some kind of Saviour, He is a HOAX and he is just as evil as W. and he is an even BIGGER Puppet - being used to toy with the emotions of Americans looking for REAL Change!
Nice thread. I particularly agree with the last paragraph in DEEPA's 1:47 p:m post.
And the last paragraph in enemyartiskristofeR's 7:07 p:m post.
For the first time in my life I voted for a freaking politician-Obama. I ain't seen the change I'd hoped for. Neither are these poor children.
Although I know mcccain would have killed and hurt more, that is no excuse for this murder from the Sky & America.
Ah correction, Deepa. Not all caps, sorry.
The very sorryist part of all this is that "YES OBAMA IS A WAR CRIMINAL" AND COWARD" the entire world no knows this. You can bet international agreements and treaties that include the US are now garbage. But really the most tragic of all this mess is that the average US citizen is to stupid to understand or appreciate the facts being disclosed. It is a pity and far worse than the most hideous event of the last century, that 250,000,000. people are so dumb that it defies discription. God help them/us all
Curb foreign troops? What, are they dreaming? Either they throw them out, or the senseless killing will go on. There's no curbing these murderers.
My 2010 Range Rover drinks the blood of children.
Based on the title of the article, I thought they meant they would "curb" the foreign troops, a la "American history X"...