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TechnoratiPentagon Wavers on Release of Report on Afghan Attack
WASHINGTON - Defense Department officials are debating whether to ignore an earlier promise and squelch the release of an investigation into a U.S. airstrike last month, out of fear that its findings would further enrage the Afghan public, Pentagon officials told McClatchy Monday.
![[Villagers look for the bodies of victims of airstrikes under the rubble in destroyed mudbrick houses in the village of Garni in the western Farah state on May 5, 2009. (AFP/File)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/airstrikes_rubble.jpg "airstrikes_rubble.jpg")
The military promised to release the report shortly after the May 4 air attack, which killed dozens of Afghans, and the Pentagon reiterated that last week. U.S. officials also said they'd release a video that military officials said shows Taliban fighters attacking Afghan and U.S. forces and then running into a building. Shortly afterward, a U.S. aircraft dropped a bomb that destroyed the building.
However, a senior defense official told McClatchy Monday: "The decision (about what to release) is now in limbo."
Pentagon leaders are divided about whether releasing the report would reflect a renewed push for openness and transparency about civilian casualties or whether it would only fan Afghan outrage and become a Taliban recruiting tool just as Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal takes command of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Two U.S. military officials told McClatchy that the video shows that no one checked to see whether any women or children were in the building before it was bombed. The report acknowledges that mistakes were made and that U.S. forces didn't always follow proper procedures, but it does little to reassure Afghans that the U.S. has done enough to avoid repeating those mistakes.
During his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month, McChrystal promised to review U.S tactics and what more could be done to minimize civilian casualties.
The chief investigator has briefed Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the report, and other top defense officials, including Navy Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are reviewing an unclassified version of it for possible release.
The airstrike, in western Farah province, has drawn the ire of local and national leaders angered that U.S. forces may have killed as many as 140 civilians in pursuit of a band of Taliban fighters. Shortly after the attack, U.S. military officials told McClatchy that they thought the death toll had been roughly 50, some of them militants.
The U.S. use of airstrikes in Afghanistan, and the resulting civilian casualties and property damage, have strained relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and become an issue in Afghanistan's August elections.
"The airstrikes are not acceptable," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said during his May visit to the U.S. "This is something that we've raised in the Afghan government very clearly, that terrorism is not in the Afghan villages, not in Afghan homes. And you cannot defeat terrorists by airstrikes."
Lacking sufficient forces to patrol the vast Afghan countryside, the U.S. has relied heavily on airstrikes. The seven-hour incident on May 4 began when Afghan police were ambushed while they were patrolling a road. Some officers were killed, prompting the police to call in the Afghan army. The army then came under attack, too, and the provincial governor called in U.S. forces.
The U.S. forces eventually called in air support, military officials said, and after the airstrike began, the Taliban moved into two remote villages separated by poppy fields that were a source of heavy enemy fire, and the fight continued into the night.
The U.S. dropped 13 bombs on some buildings, military officials in Afghanistan have said.
The report found that an Air Force B-1 bomber had to circle overhead before dropping a 2,000-pound bomb on a site where suspected Taliban fighters had fled. While it was circling, civilians could've entered the building or Taliban could've left, but the military had no one in a position to observe that.
"There's no way to determine whether or not that had anything to do with the fact that civilian casualties did occur in this incident, but they did note that as one of the problems associated with how this all took place," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said last week.
16 Comments so far
Show AllAs stated earlier, Afghanis sure as hell know what we're doing to them. What Obama and the Pentagon really is that release of reports (just like a release of all of the Abu Gharaib photos) would anger many Americans and serve to undermine support for the wars which are so dear to the military industrial complex.
If you don't want journalists to report something obvious as being true, the best way to handle the PR is not do the bad stuff in the first place. McChrystal could hand over the screwups to the locals for prosecution (the legally correct thing to do, and of course they could never get a fair trial in US hands). He could stop the use of weapons too powerful for this type of environment (no helo gunships, fighters, bombers, armed UAVs, heavy artillery. He could enforce that use of derogatory terms for the natives (sand-niggers, eg) will result in significant punishment (hard labor fixing what they broke). He could bring back the term IFFN, which disappeared soon after the early (1991) phases of the US-Iraq war. McChrystal will do none of these things, just say nice words but at best perform cosmetic actions.
the language coming out of the pentagon/war department has been sounding so monotonous and predictable, it almost fails now to even qualify as intelligible speech at all.
and what's the point anyway? is there anyone left in the world who still listens?
oh right I forgot. president obama, right? is that who they are talking to?
STOP THE WARS STOP THE LIES
george sebouhian
Forgive me for what seems like an exaggeration, but what is described above with the secrecy that the government imposes is what most of us experience in the US daily in our jobs, in our being treated like the untouchables of India, completely without power; if anything we are the pyramid builders of wealth for the wealthy. Many of us have been brought up to be friendly, gentle, understanding, helpful, kind, and happy--in other words a formula for the losers. The only difference between the horror of the prideless, souless mannifkins we are and the bloodied soldiers is that the former don't feel much, don't care much; but the latter feel too much and kill only to find themselves alone with the horror. And so we come to know that Dante's Inferno is the nature of this world, without escape; there is no Paradise.
Such BS! Is it not obvious that War has no morality! When we send our soldiers to fight there really are no holds barred! As we know breaking war "rules" is common (torture). The game dictates that there has to be an enemy which has to be destroyed or concede defeat. That is the game. There is no "fair" war as there is no real winning. Mostly these days the general populace suffer along with those who do the bidding of the rich and powerful. When we allow our governments to declare war or invade another country for whatever reason, we are saying yes to our own downfall. War is a very terrible game to play!
Jason Grant Garza here ... well, surprise, surprise, surprise ... my own government has workers (VA, L/C, OIG, Medicare, etc) that can't follow their own rules and procedures setup? What happens when they don't? Can you sue the governement ... let me give you an example. When the city of San Francisco (SFGH) broke the law against myself as a Medicare patient, I took them to court myself and the city represented, testified, and TESTILIED that they had followed the law. Now years later there is a settlement agreement admitting fault and liability thru the Office of Inspector General (call Donald White 202-619-0088.) Now of coarse, NO ONE is bringing up the fraud in Federal Court, the failure of Medicare, Licensing & Certification or even the Office of Inspector General who will NOT do an investigation as to how this could happen, what consquences their nonperforming, neglient workers face,and lastly NOT one ounce of decensy to compensate their victim. Had they done their job correctly my outcome in court would have be different ... as such, now VINDICATED ... no one cares and there is NO INVESTIGATION, RESTITUTION, CONTRITION NOR making their victim "WHOLE." They all still have their jobs, will collect their pensions and I am left to DIE, DEAD RIGHT and left for DEAD! Type my name (Jason Grant Garza) into a google search engine and read, call any SF supervisor, the Department of Public Health or the City Attorney and ask ... expect NO ANSWER and certainly NO HUMANITY or DIGNITY. However, you will hear they care, have your best interest at heart and thet they know what they are doing.
Consquently, I dropped my Medicare for nonperformance, neglience, bad faith, etc. Since they will never answer and I have all the facts and kept all the paperwork etc. So which is worse ... me with no Medical or the LIES by those responsible? Ah, the audacity of FALSE HOPE by FALSE LEADERS with NO RESPONSIBILITY. Would you like to see my NANCY PELOSI file from where I went to her and I was told they COULD NOT legislate accountablity or morality! Apparently, they can't get the law followed either and when you show them their "doomed and planned to fail" DEAD ENDED REFERRALS they CLOSE THE CASE. Type my name into a google search engine and read (Jason Grant Garza) ... what a farce and the Band Plays On. Mind you, just like in Guantanamo, I have been fighting this for more than 7 (seven) years and will continue until I die since there is NO HOPE for changing it. HOPELESS, the LIVING DEAD; however, NO LONGER A FOOL! Good luck folks ... YOU'RE NEXT!
Try to hang in there Jason.
"We have seen the enemy and it is TRUTH!"
Pentagon Spokesman.
"Anyone blaming attacks against US interests as motivated by US policy are Anti-Americans. They hate us for our freedom and liberty"
Several million Americans.
odoco
Amen!
I have lost nearly all the respect I ever had for the US military. It has, on so many, many occasions, told outright lies to the US citizenry and to the world. People tend to forget things like Pat Tillman's 'friendly fire' death, and the quasi rescue (staged and filmed) of Jessica Lynch, which turned out to be pure stuff of propaganda. And might I add, exactly the same type of tactic so often used in Hitler's Germany - super patriotism, appeal to emotion and nationalism, and casting the enemy as some inhuman, sub-group other. It sickens me.
No, I don't buy it anymore. In fact, when I see people in uniform my usual reaction is to 1) pity the young people who get sucked into the military/corporate scheme out of ignorance, and 2) disgust for the military leaders who make a career out of promoting the American Empire by decimating the populations of other nations. Little of this charade has to do with national security, it is mostly using the military, supplied with our tax dollars, to secure and perpetuate a transnational system of wealth accumulation that only benefits the political and economic elite.
Hey, America.
How does it feel to be a witness to your own defeat, at your own insistence, as a result of your own "mass stupidity", arrogance, and very highly over valued sense of righteousness?
You are doomed to failure because you are a corrupt nation devoid of any real sense of responsibility since there is an under lying concept that "God is on your side"---and therefore you can do no "real bad"----
There are a few of you who are decent people, but they will either survive the inevitable destruction you bring upon yourselves, or they will sadly, be counted among the dead.
America, you were a 'good idea' but you lacked the integrity and the intestinal fortitude to be anything other than what you have been from the beginning: a mean cruel lie foisted upon all of the innocents you have made contact with. You have wasted your every opportunity to be a true world leader, and instead you have become the most dangerous rogue nation in the history of human kind. You cannot be trusted, even by your friends. You can justify the most horrible crimes against other human beings as well as other animal life forms you deem unworthy. You make mediocrity a national anthem, and worship the macabre as the example.
The world has tired of you, and even though they rightfully fear you, they loath you enough to wait for your own self destruction, and history reveals that you show all of the 'classic symptoms' of self destruction.
History can only remember you as a horrible example.
I would wish you "good luck" but you had it, and you "pissed it away"...............
Amen! Tell it like it is. Such shame that automatically creates denial!
And good luck to you on improving this veil of tears.
From the article:
Releasing the pictures "...would only fan Afghan outrage and become a Taliban recruiting tool just as Army Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal takes command..."
Bee Ess. The Afghanis already know all too well what they're suffering. Each new incident creates another fighter, and another household willing to give aid and comfort to that fighter.
No, just as with the policy of not showing flag-draped coffins being offloaded at Dover AFB, this uncharacteristic modesty is aimed squarely at the bill-paying US public, who might be made uneasy about how their tax dollars are spent if they knew.
Sounds right to me. And that same public would also be more likely to demand transparency on how the military is "making it right," to the degree that anything like killing innocent civilians ever CAN be made right. Transparency, possibly, could bring all the people, Afghans, Americans and others globally, together in the sense that everyone can see what's going on, and those who are concerned about killing civilians can raise their voices as one.
"Lacking sufficient forces to patrol the vast Afghan countryside, the U.S. has relied heavily on airstrikes."
Insert a description of any standard military opersion for the words "patrol the vast Afghan countryside" and you pretty much have US foreign policy in a nutshell.
q
yeah, and what's more, if you go back to 1919 during the 3rd Anglo-Afghan war, air power (although relatively primitive) was used heavily for the same reasons; the British called them "Taleban" back then as well. Funny how when the Pashtun tribesmen do the bidding of the Empire, they are called " mujahadeen" or "freedom fighters", when they don't, "Taleban" and "terrorists".