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NATO to Innocent Afghan Villagers: 'Keep Your Heads Down'
U.S.-led NATO forces are planning one of the 8-year-old war's biggest offensives to seize Marjah, a patchwork of desert canals and opium fields that is now the last large Taliban-held bastion in Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province.
A U.S. Marine cleans his weapon at a company operation base (COB) in Afghanistan. Under international law, NATO forces are obliged to provide humanitarian assistance to anyone who chooses to flee the assault, said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch.
Having advised civilians to stay instead -- helping ensure the area remains heavily populated during the offensive -- NATO forces bear an extra responsibility to control their fire and avoid tactics that endanger civilians. (Baz/Getty)
The assault, the first since U.S. President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan in December, is the start of a campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas this year, before U.S. forces start to draw down in 2011.
Western countries hope military success this year will persuade Taliban fighters to lay down arms and their leaders to accept invitations to talk.
Hundreds of civilians have fled, but most of the area's population, estimated at up to 100,000, remain in their homes in the face of what could be an unprecedented level of fighting.
NATO civilian representative Mark Sedwill said "sufficient" plans were in place to feed and house any civilians who flee, but declined to give details of how many displaced people NATO or the Afghan authorities had the capacity to assist.
"There are good reasons not to go into the exact numbers of details of the operation at this stage," Sedwill, a former British ambassador who arrived this week to take up the beefed-up post of chief NATO civilian in Kabul, told a news briefing.
"What we can say is that we are confident there are sufficient resources there to accommodate and feed anybody who chooses to leave the area," he said.
Helmand's governor, Gulab Mangal, said so far about 164 families have fled the area in recent days. A commission had been set up that has the capability to cope with any crisis, he said.
NATO forces have decided to advise civilians in Marjah not to leave their homes, although they say they do not know whether the assault will lead to heavy fighting.
HEADS DOWN, STAY INSIDE
"The message to the people of the area is of course, keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead," Sedwill said.
"We very much hope that the military phase of this operation will go ahead swiftly and with as little incident as possible. This of course very much depends on the conduct of those people who are in Marjah at the moment, their choices about whether to resist or to lay down their weapons."
Unlike previous military operations, the assault on Marjah has been widely flagged for months. Commanders say they hope this will persuade many fighters to lay down their arms or flee, reducing the eventual death toll.
Civilians who have left the area, however, report that fighters are digging in and preparing for battle.
Under international law, NATO forces are obliged to provide humanitarian assistance to anyone who chooses to flee the assault, said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch.
Having advised civilians to stay instead -- helping ensure the area remains heavily populated during the offensive -- they bear an extra responsibility to control their fire and avoid tactics that endanger civilians.
"I suspect that they believe they have the ability to generally distinguish between combatants and civilians. I would call that into question, given their long history of mistakes, particularly when using air power," Adams said.
"Whatever they do, they have an obligation to protect civilians and make adequate provision to alleviate any crisis that arises," he said. "It is very much their responsibility.... They are going to be carrying the can if this goes badly."
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
- Posted in
68 Comments so far
Show AllMore care less US lipstick-up of middle-east homelanders. Pathetic.
I believe our "heroes" in with their artillery, drones, and bombers will, by destroying kids, women, old men and clergy, help us win the hearts and minds of those easily persuaded by (state) terrorism.
Afghan patriots and freedom fighters will take sustenance from this brutality, we can hope.
Saturation bombing of a densely-populated village in the dead of winter?
Those that aren't blown up or burnt alive can freeze to death, eh?
Perhaps herded together into another No Gun Ri...
"NATO to Afghan Assault Villagers: Keep Heads Down"
- The continuing "Chronicle of a [Massive] Death Foretold".
"Keep Heads Down" sounds ominously like "Duck and cover" to avoid atomic bombs...
"They are going to be carrying the can if this goes badly"
It already has gone badly. Where does the US and NATO require further elaboration?
1, Their original UN mandate was never to sanction long term occupation by foreign colonial forces. Military actions in Afghanistan have been a failure. Escalated military intervention can only compound the disaster.
2, Irrespective of the rump illegitimate Karsai puppet government supported by US military occupation and corrupt war lords and drug money, 80 percent of Afghan people want the military occupation, namely NATO and US forces out, not escalated.
3, How can these occupation decision makers not understand the importance of the meaning of "respect" for Afghan people. Respect is more important than life itself to them. No money or military might can buy or change this fundamental principal and prerequisite to Afghan community.
An afghan village elder will not be told by some hyped, ignorant, heathen, Spokane or Houston asshole in a uniform speaking through a translator to keep his head down or get it blown off, or to get out of town while it is safe so that he can clear out the Taliban, which in fact he cannot distinguish from the local barber.
If you want to work with or influence the future of Afghanistan, start by listening to the Afghans, and give them the respect they deserve. The Afghans are saying... You have made enough of a mess here. We know what you are about. We have had invaders for hundreds of years, since Alexander the Great and before to the Russians and now you, and they all came here to "liberate" us.
We do not need you, but if you want to work with us you need our respect, to earn our respect you must take your force away and listen to what we tell you. It is clear that at the moment you are causing that which you pretend to be fighting against, none of which is related to your own national defence in America or Europe. If you cannot respect us, at least respect yourselves and stop lying to your own people about what you are doing here.
The sanity---not to mention the morality---of this operation grows more and more dubious with each succeeding news article on this well-publicized "show invasion," apparently designed to show the Taliban that we can and will seize and hold an area that they have controlled. Today's anti-war.com has a Jason Ditz summary noting that the Taliban intends to "wait" out NATO. http://news.antiwar.com/2010/02/08/commander-taliban-to-wait-out-nato-invasion/ They, like the ludicrous "chief NATO civilian in Kabul" advises civilians to do, will "go inside and keep their heads down" and if soldiers (as they will) go inside in search of "militants" and stand them up, they will shake hands with the soldiers and welcome them as liberators and the soldiers will leave. But not before the numerous roadside bombs to and from the town that the Taliban has planted have killed a few of the NATO "fighters." The Associated Press story de jure on Marjah says NATO commanders intend to use mostly newly trained Afghan soldiers, who presumably can tell an insurgent from an "innocent" civilian. Lots of luck with that!
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Shades of the most "Moral army in the World" the IDF. Any afghans that get shot were warned and did got keep their heads down, thus it their fault.
I don't know what everyone is upset about!
At least the Afghans are getting a pathetic warning.
The people in Falluja in Iraq got no such consideration the last time the good ol' USMC 'Devil Dogs' were let off their leash against civilians....
note - 'Devil Dogs' is a term that the jarheads use to refer to themselves. They consider it a badge of honor because it is what the Germans called them in WWI. But
That's odd, because I DO remember lots of press before the Falluja operation ramped-up.
Either way, this is clearly a Falluja-style attempt to disrupt and then disable an "insurgent center" by flushing out the civilians, tearing down the town, taking out those who remain, then ID-tracking those who return.
matti: You're right, there was "lots of press" before Falluja, telling civilians in effect to get out, and anyone remaining would be in a free fire zone of assuming they were insurgents. The worst of this was that men and boys of "military" action were FORBIDDEN to leave: the ultimate profiling: if you have male genitalia, you're a terrorist. Is this a great military outfit or what?
Thanks.
I thought I was going senile early there for a moment.
I DID forget about the ban on "military age males" however. I wonder if something like that IS going on in this situation, but NATO is just keeping it quiet for publicity-back-home reasons.
Americans might be more amenable to chauvanistic, medieval "the women and children are free to leave" stuff than our friends in Europe, maybe?
Or perhaps the Afghanistan Occupation commanders want to skip over the actual fighting bit of the Falluja-technique, and go right to the city-as-prison bit, so they WANT all of the actual fighters to get out before they demolish the town?
-matti.
"Whatever they do, they have an obligation to protect civilians and make adequate provision to alleviate any crisis that arises,".
Yea? Or what are they gonna do about it?
Shameful! If the civilians who cant or wont duck will be sitting ducks for the onslaught.
One can't help wondering how many Americans would heed similar advice while their country was occupied by a foreign military force carrying out a 'massive assault' on their compatriots.
Considering the prevalence of cringing passive acquiescence to certain other massive assaults on their republic's 'sovereignty of the people', quite a few, I guess.
I guess we have had to exchange the "Taliban" for our supposedly "true" enemy of Al quieda since there are - according to the US military leadership - only 100 al queida members left in Afganistan.....
100,000+ troops to "find" 100 terrrorists....
we spend more than 20,000 per man, woman and child in Afganistan - where the average yearly wage is 500.00
we could for 1/10th the cost simply pay the afgani's to rebuild their country and provide non-extremist education -
THAT would be a better use of money BUT wouldn't enrich the multi-nationals and the military contractors....
hence it's bomb bomb bomb agfan.....and it seems our new motto is "death to innocent women and children"
BY THE WAY OBOMBA has GREATLY increased the use of private military contractors.....
and here I thought Obomba was against trickle-dwon economics!
and a "peace" loving man.....hence the nobel peace prize
It's not easy to protect the constitution against "all enemies foreign and domestic" when most of the real ones are your principal advisers and financial-political supporters. In the circumstances, it's much easier to find some 'alien' force to blame (preferably one that might otherwise hinder 'globalization') and bomb the crap out of them.
The domestic audience will fall for anything and even applaud your efforts to spread America's version of "freedom and democracy." The absence, or even the diminishing, of any such real benefits at home will hardly be noticed at all -- at least not by anyone who matters.
I think your financial concerns regarding the Afghanistan expedition are groundless. After all, it only costs $2,739.73 a day to keep a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan.
"The message to the people of the area is of course, keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead," Sedwill said."
Just sit tight and wait for the marines to bust in your door, tear apart your home, kill your pets and rape your daughters. Remember, we are here to liberate you. This is all for your own good.
"Commanders say they hope this will persuade many fighters to lay down their arms or flee, reducing the eventual death toll."
Yes, we must keep the death toll among the invaders to a minimum. Unarmed "insurgent" men, women and children are so much easier to kill.
"Under international law, NATO forces are obliged to provide humanitarian assistance to anyone who chooses to flee the assault, said Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch."
Like Fallujah in Iraq where the U.S. military sealed off the city and bombed it to rubble along with the use of chemical and phosphorus weapons? So did the US break international law in Fallujah or is the US exempt because it is the exceptional nation? Was Fallujah a war crime? Just asking. Inquisitive Afghans want to know.
It was a whole uncountable mess of war crimes.The "operation" itself, premeditated murder of a whole city, was a huge war crime, of course. But if we were to bring the case to trial in an international
criminal court, the indictment would have several thousand counts on it. Every time a u.s. sniper picked off anyone walking around, every bomb that was dropped, every bullet hole in every ambulance-
all certifiable war crimes.
Does advance warning relieve us from the consequences of 'collateral damage?' Will we again use white phospherous and other truly evil weapons upon the people in this 'densly populated area that we used in Falluja? Will the people fleeing their homes even have a home to come back to? Will we offer to pay a set price per victim to the survivors? Or will we simply lay waste to Helmand and call it Mission Accomplished?
Would anyone care to estimate the results of how many 'enemy combatants' lay down their arms compared to how many new recruits this assult will create?
Not sure about the numerical ratios, but I strongly suspect that the bases for recruitment are expanding far beyond the countries under direct current attack. That geopolitical consideration, it seems to me, poses a far greater threat to the ultimate success of the 'mission' (whatever that may be in actuality) than any immediate tactical or strategic outcome.
I believe the occupiers are already using Wille Pete, in this attack, for "illumination Purposes"
I understand that many children that have been born since the 'assalt' on Falluja have multiple birth defects. I wonder how we refer to this. DCD? Delayed Collateral Damage?
No Afghan Left Standing.
When someone drops a 1,000# bomb on this Nato chump tell him to keep his head down.
And Rueters is misinformed or lies because the last communication from Omar was "We are willing to talk peace now,just as long as it does not EXTEND the presence of NATO occupiers".
But Hillary's peace talks offer is of the zionist variety, accede all your demands first and then we will talk.
This,NATO installed, governor Mangal,according to one previous CD article is a mass raper of young boys.
Three commonly held misconceptions imbibed from imperial demonization propaganda:
1) The USA attacked a failed state, the Taleban had control of most of the nation.
2) Afghanistan is less culturally unified than say, India, Pakistan or the USA.
3) The Taliban ( I need not remind posters that we are actually slaughtering non- Taliban Pastuns only militarily associated with Taliban) are without merit and virtue, in fact it is their overwhelming concentration on what they perceive as virtue that results in some negative extremism.
Years ago when asked why the US left Afghanistan with most of it's troops Sec. Def Rumsfeld stated that Iraq was a target rich environment while Afghanistan not so. After our campaign of shock and awe otherwise known as destruction of all non militarily important infrastructure Iraq was completely destroyed.
Afghanistan is likely equally destroyed. So 8 years later with unlimited equipment, men and billions spent we are still chasing around a very small country the same 100 bad guys that we went their to eliminate.
WWII took place over a much larger area with bigger armies and was done in half the time we have been in Afghanistan. Now we resort to bombs instead of men with rifles. We have not won nor will we.
Most Americans don't want to be on or support the losing team. So why do we continue to support our troops knowing full well they have shit them selves and can't get up. We can't find the anthrax mailer, have no clue as to what really happened on 9/11, lost Bin Laden, can't solve the Palestine and Israel conflict, can't even get the oil from Iraq and now force people from their homes under threat of death to find those that fight against foreign invaders of their country.
Pretty sad really. You can talk about the city on the hill, or the financial powerhouse, or military powerhouse we are but as we do without health care, infant mortality rises, we import 1.5 million to fill jobs Americans are not smart enough to fill, have millions out of work and losing their homes it all sounds like the USA is a big bag of hot air.
Show me the goods or get off the stage.
"Most Americans don't want to be on or support the losing team."
You said a mouthful right there. The "winning is everything" mentality accounts for a lot of things, not least the support that "democratically" legitimizes politicians who got the U.S. into such an unholy mess in the first place.
Ich bin ein Afghani...
A sentiment that is undoubtedly shared by many worldwide. As I said below, there's little question that the recruitment bases are being expanded very rapidly.
Abe 1:45 ------- I agree with your post. A couple of points. Afghanistan may be comparatively small but I would not put it in the very small category.
I think the Germans and Japanese would say the USA etc. used a hell of alot of bombs in WWII including two Atomic bombs. Athough it may very well have had more of a reliance on rifles.
I did see a right slanted movie recently that had the deployng USA sailor saying " This time( referring to Vietnam) we will do it right.
So I do believe there is a great amount of reaction to the Vietnam retreat in the right wing promulgation of this global crusade on Islam.
Another Fallujah style attack on the way?
Not just the attack. But the ID tracking of all returnees too, I'd bet.
From the standpoint of the generals, Falluja (and other less publicized operations in Iraq) was a "counter-insurgency" SUCCESS. For them it is an example to be emulated.
Turn the cities of the occupied nation into infrastructurally dysfunctional medium security prisons and then position brutal-response air and land assets on bases in the hinterland to be ready if the prisoners should attempt a serious riot or jail-break. Have mercenaries do most of the grunt-work in city and cover the rural militias with with Mafia-style bribes to, and assasinations of, their leaders.
This is the doctrine that was pioneered in Gaza and expanded upon in Iraq.
To the evil bastards who oversee the Afghanistan Occupation, it is a pathway to success.
After all, when was the last time people back home complained about the situation in Iraq? Now that the infrastructure of the cities-as-prisons model does most of the actual WORK of repression, and the hinterland bases and bribes to/killings of militia leaders does the rest, very few American "heroes" die there anymore, and much fewer Iraqis die as well. With only a trickle of body bags, the cowed majority can go back to focusing on ball games and "The Biggest Loser", and the Empire can get on with the business of consolidating its power.
-matti.
ONward American imperial aggressors, killing Muslims in five or six countries now; I've lost count. Let's see, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somali, Yemen and...
From Bush illegal criminal hostile imperial military occupations to Obama illegal criminal hostile imperial military occupations. Same old shit...
Iran also. the CIA openly funds Baluchi Sunnis from Pakistan to commit violent terrorist acts within Iran.
Not to worry. However it goes, the corporate media will avoid talking about civilian deaths, except to blame them on the Taliban.
mtdon, regarding Obama's peace prize, my oldest son said the Nobel committee gave it to him to encourage him to carry out his early campaign promises to seek peaceful solutions to conflicts. But hey, they also gave a peace prize to Kissinger, so we know what their judgment is worth.
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
This'll all be a hell of a recruiting tool for people who, to avenge the murders of their family members, will, as Afghan freedom fighters and patriots as well, be pleased to put bullets in the brains of young American stupid enough to fight wars for Bush's and now Obama's lies.
One has to begin to wonder what force these new 'recruits' will end up fighting for?
Will there begin to build a movement across international borders?
A class movement based on the shared frustrations of living under ongoing violent opression, no matter what language spoken by the opressor or the opressed?
A drone knows no boundary, why should those being targeted be contained by such?
Can the average American, for example, see that they may have much more in common with the average Afghani than they may wish to acknowledge?
When does the homeless American identify with the homeless Afghani, and realize they are both victims of the same system?
Let's face it; it wouldn't matter if every Afghan took out a white flag and said OK you win. Yep, we're all dying and, guess what, you win and we loose; that's right, whatever you want we lay it all at your feet.
It doesn't matter, because that's not the way it works; war is the single underlying motivation for the human species.
Put in perspective, we're not in this alone, just like we weren't in the Iraq conflagration alone in the beginning. It seems the world's gone mad - with the U.S. and our allies chasing after the same 100 Al Quaeda.
Let's stop pretending. Our 21st century wars are not about terrorists, nor about WTC, they're about controlling the world's resources so that the billions of dark skinned people who inhabit Asia, Africa the Americas, etc., can fall or be pushed off the face of the earth, so long as the western powers have the lions share of what the world has to offer. Dick Cheney has been pretty clear on all of this.
"The message to the people of the area is of course, keep your heads down, stay inside when the operation is going ahead," Sedwill said.
The first message is for everybody to leave the area. Where is one to go in a ravaged, war torn land in the middle of Winter? People are homeless, starving, ill, no matter where you go.
Why does this bring to mind Gaza? “The people were told to evacuate the area to avoid injuries.” Where can you go when you are in a large walled ghetto filled with destroyed homes and businesses. “Anyone remaining in Gaza will be considered combatants.” Women and children shot down in the streets and their homes. “IDF was just protecting itself.”
Warsaw ghetto. No chance to flee and nowhere to go. But the Jews resisted for a long time until they were overwhelmed by tanks and massive troop deployment. Those who were not killed outright were shipped to extermination camps
Fallujah, no place to go, just stay here and die at home.
Wounded Knee. “As long as the grass shall grow and the rivers flow.” One day in the Winter, the river froze and the grass was buried under the snow...
I could go on, but what is the use. As our Empire has grown, we have had still more firepower, more ways to kill and subjugate, and we do it. The lessons of history tell us that every subjugated people resists and the more ruthless the invader or occupier, the more ruthless the resistance. Look at France and Eastern Europe during WW-II. True, we have become masters of “divide and conquer” because we spend millions in psy-ops to learn how to control and subvert populations, (including our own) so we foment civil wars and supply both sides with weapons and intelligence, then move in as peacemakers and kill both sides after they have weakened themselves. Hell, nothing new there, the Roman Empire did the same thing, until the various “barbarians” decided to bury their private feuds and go after the greater enemy.
Even Hitler went too far and the world had had enough. It took a generation of our youth to do it, but eventually we thought we had erased fascism and Nazism from the earth. The world made agreements to make sure this could never happen again. Now the nation that took the lead in peace is striding with its own jackboots over the world, looting and pillaging in the name of its corporate masters.
Someday this, too, shall pass away, but my heart aches for the millions or billions that will suffer and die before it happens.
I'm with you on everything but "our Empire".
It ain't MY Empire, friend, and it doesn't seem to be YOURS either.
We're "subjagate(d)" too.
We're just subjects who live in the territorial part of the Empire and not the hegemonic part, that's all.
It'll take the power of the majority of us working together and restoring the Republic to make any part of this mess truly "ours" again.
Empires, like all other oligarchical systems, belong only to those few who wield the power in them.
-matti.
I agree with Matti where ever you are...I am not terrified of the threat from terrorists abroad but from the terrorists within the US government and in the military. Operating under the guise of Democracy they have transformed something that was good and honorable into a cover for covert operations world wide. While America crumbles from the inside out America is conquering the world one small country at a time. Just once I would like to read that now that we are leaving Iraq the approximatly four million refugees have a place to come home to. Looks like we did a darn good job of devastating an entire country. And as for leaving Iraq democratized it appears that their government is as corupt as ours.
I think of it this as this simple:
Empire always detroys Democracy.
To talk about a Democratic and Republican county that has a overseas Empire is to posit an impossibility and a contradiction in terms.
So, are we for Democracy or not?
If yes, then we are Anti-Empire.
So what we should be doing is working to dismantle the Empire and restore the Republic.
The best place to do this is in the "home country" since we still have the structures of the Republic in place here, and if we use them well, we can rid the rest of the world as well.
When I wrote "territorial" and "hegemonic" I was speaking in jargon.
These are the two "types" of Empires that scholars speak of.
The Roman Empire was "territorial" since it actually conquer territories and absorbed them into what was "Rome".
A "hegemonic" empire just controls other territories, but leaves them on their own politically, more of a colonial technique.
The U.S. follows in the footsteps of the British Empire in that it is "mixed".
The 50 States and actual "protctorates" and territories, like Guam or Puerto Rico would be the Territorial Empire (rember that all of it was conquered in one way or another).
Places where the U.S. has established Military bases and employs economic dominance schemes would be the Hegemonic Empire.
-matti.
We are the nazis of the 21st century. Where were the good Germans? Where are the good Americans? Certainly not posting on cd. The good Americans are the soldiers and marines who have refused to go to war and are now serving time in jail, or worse. The good Americans are those who are willing to stand up to the terror from the White House and be jailed - people like Howard Zinn and Daniel Ellsberg.
That's right, everyone in here constantly protesting these atrocities are Bad Americans. If we're not in jail for it we're evil and worthless.
If the messages of those making Common Dreams comments on this article were dominant in the mainstream media we could actually bring about change we could believe in.
Everyone in the US has a great need-to-know that the USA is the most arrogant imperialistic military power in human history and the US Central Intelligence Agency is the ultimate terrorist organization on our small blue planet.
"A commission had been set up that has the capability to cope with any crisis, he said."
That's comforting. No matter the crisis, we all know how competently any "commission" responds and deals with it. Imagine going into a place like this and telling the villagers, "We're about to launch a major attack on your village. But don't worry, just keep your heads down and stay inside. And if any crisis should develop, and of course that's not expected, we have a Commission prepared to deal with it."
Wouldn't you expect the people to all thank you and let you know how much they appreciate all your HELP? There might be two or three ungrateful losers among them, but in time you'd know they'll eventually thank the beneficent United States for blowing up their impoverished community and killing and wounding for life numbers of them that will never be counted. The eventual kill count will be disputed by our gallant military brass, atrocities will be reported and denied, investigations will be promised and never materialize. Then it's on the next town on our demented, psychotic warpath, the Good War Obama wanted and will be as unaccountable for as Bush and Cheney are for Iraq, still smoldering and blowing itself up daily. Our madmen presidents and their thuggish military, just carrying out the usual business of empire as a way of life.
I am reminded of a line from the animated movie "Chicken Run": 'Put your heads between your knees and kiss your bum goodbye.' Is that really all we have to offer these poor buggers, who didn't ask for US to be there in the first place? I dispair.
You just don't get it. It's all about ensuring that little girls (those lucky enough to survive) can attend the same classrooms as little boys and other such purely altruistic motives.
Get ready to despair some more.
Because on top of not "ask(ing) for US to be there in the first place" they have actually been asking the occupiers to LEAVE, more, and more urgently, for quite some time now.
They'll all be given aid packages after they are properly tagged for tracking and the walls are up around the rubble of their city, never fear.