SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Where 'Military Victory' Is an Oxymoron
When it comes to Afghanistan, "military victory" is an
oxymoron. Even President Obama and his Defense Secretary Robert Gates
say so. Repeatedly.
The only path to peaceful resolution to the Afghanistan conundrum,
they point out, is by winning the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan
people.
Apr 07, 2010
When it comes to Afghanistan, "military victory" is an
oxymoron. Even President Obama and his Defense Secretary Robert Gates
say so. Repeatedly.
The only path to peaceful resolution to the Afghanistan conundrum,
they point out, is by winning the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan
people.
That is why the grim news from Afghanistan about the cover up of the a
botched US military raid of a baby shower near Gardez is so
devastating. Unfortunately, the public response to-date from US and NATO
officials in Kabul has been dreadful. It turns out that the Obama
administration's Afghanistan strategy is being defeated by
self-inflicted wounds, and it is unclear that US officials over there
even have a clue that they continue to inflict them.
This is why a truly independent investigation of what happened is so
critical to the President's strategy in Afghanistan. Please join
our campaign calling on the president to investigate the baby shower
raid that resulted in the killing of innocent Afghans, including two
pregnant women.
If you haven't read about this
horrendous incident, and the US response to it, brace yourself.
Afghan investigators are claiming that US Special Operations forces
tried to cover up the horrific killing of five Afghan citizens in
February following a raid of what turned out to be a baby shower.
Three women were killed. Two of them were pregnant. Also killed was a
police commander and his brother, a government prosecutor.
As if this wasn't bad enough, military officials went about fueling
Taliban claims about how barbaric the foreign military occupation is by
immediately putting out false information about the raid. They claimed
that NATO soldiers had stumbled upon the "bodies of three women who
had been tied up, gagged and killed" after the raid was over. According
to the New York Times, military officials also claimed at
the time that the bodies showed signs of puncture and slashing wounds
from a knife and appeared to have died several hours before the raid.
They went on to imply that the women had been killed by their own
families. CNN reported the story under the headline: "Bodies Found
Gagged, Bound after Afghan 'Honor Killing'" .
Now it turns out that the claims by the US military were false. The London
Times and New York Times reported this week that Afghan
investigators have determined that American forces tampered with
evidence at the scene and even "dug bullets out of their victims bodies"
after the killing.
The US led military command finally admitted on Sunday night that
their previous denials of any involvement in the killing of the women
were false. Special Forces had, indeed, killed them. Still, they
denied any cover up. A US military official declared: "We strongly deny
having dug any bullets out of bodies. There is simply no evidence."
While denying any tampering with evidence, he went on to say that the
military is "further investigating" the incident. Who else might
possibly have had a motive to cover up the evidence at the scene was
left to the imagination.
The Taliban could have hardly made this up to fuel their campaign
against the foreign invaders and military occupiers.
Don't get me wrong -- I think that the current US strategy in
Afghanistan is a grave mistake and cannot be set right by correcting
the Pentagon's botched reaction to a horribly botched raid. But, this
incident is one more illustration of why a military led strategy in
Afghanistan -- that is tone deaf to the damage that something like this
does to its own cause -- is doomed to failure. Nothing short a complete
demilitarization of US Afghanistan policy is required. But, while no
one his holding their breath that this is in the cards, at the very
least the administration can take steps to deal responsibly with this
horror. And stop the damage that it continues to inflict on its own
cause.
A thorough and truly independent investigation of the baby shower
killings is required NOW. Justice and accountability demand it. So does
a strategy that is dependent on winning "hearts and minds".
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Tom Andrews
Tom Andrews, is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and a Robina Senior Human Rights Fellow at Yale Law School. A former Member of Congress from the First Congressional District of Maine, he was a co-founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Tom served as National Director of Win Without War, and President of United to End Genocide. He has worked with political organizers and human rights advocates in Cambodia, Indonesia, Algeria, Croatia, Yemen and Ukraine, among others. He has a Washington DC-based consulting practice.
When it comes to Afghanistan, "military victory" is an
oxymoron. Even President Obama and his Defense Secretary Robert Gates
say so. Repeatedly.
The only path to peaceful resolution to the Afghanistan conundrum,
they point out, is by winning the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan
people.
That is why the grim news from Afghanistan about the cover up of the a
botched US military raid of a baby shower near Gardez is so
devastating. Unfortunately, the public response to-date from US and NATO
officials in Kabul has been dreadful. It turns out that the Obama
administration's Afghanistan strategy is being defeated by
self-inflicted wounds, and it is unclear that US officials over there
even have a clue that they continue to inflict them.
This is why a truly independent investigation of what happened is so
critical to the President's strategy in Afghanistan. Please join
our campaign calling on the president to investigate the baby shower
raid that resulted in the killing of innocent Afghans, including two
pregnant women.
If you haven't read about this
horrendous incident, and the US response to it, brace yourself.
Afghan investigators are claiming that US Special Operations forces
tried to cover up the horrific killing of five Afghan citizens in
February following a raid of what turned out to be a baby shower.
Three women were killed. Two of them were pregnant. Also killed was a
police commander and his brother, a government prosecutor.
As if this wasn't bad enough, military officials went about fueling
Taliban claims about how barbaric the foreign military occupation is by
immediately putting out false information about the raid. They claimed
that NATO soldiers had stumbled upon the "bodies of three women who
had been tied up, gagged and killed" after the raid was over. According
to the New York Times, military officials also claimed at
the time that the bodies showed signs of puncture and slashing wounds
from a knife and appeared to have died several hours before the raid.
They went on to imply that the women had been killed by their own
families. CNN reported the story under the headline: "Bodies Found
Gagged, Bound after Afghan 'Honor Killing'" .
Now it turns out that the claims by the US military were false. The London
Times and New York Times reported this week that Afghan
investigators have determined that American forces tampered with
evidence at the scene and even "dug bullets out of their victims bodies"
after the killing.
The US led military command finally admitted on Sunday night that
their previous denials of any involvement in the killing of the women
were false. Special Forces had, indeed, killed them. Still, they
denied any cover up. A US military official declared: "We strongly deny
having dug any bullets out of bodies. There is simply no evidence."
While denying any tampering with evidence, he went on to say that the
military is "further investigating" the incident. Who else might
possibly have had a motive to cover up the evidence at the scene was
left to the imagination.
The Taliban could have hardly made this up to fuel their campaign
against the foreign invaders and military occupiers.
Don't get me wrong -- I think that the current US strategy in
Afghanistan is a grave mistake and cannot be set right by correcting
the Pentagon's botched reaction to a horribly botched raid. But, this
incident is one more illustration of why a military led strategy in
Afghanistan -- that is tone deaf to the damage that something like this
does to its own cause -- is doomed to failure. Nothing short a complete
demilitarization of US Afghanistan policy is required. But, while no
one his holding their breath that this is in the cards, at the very
least the administration can take steps to deal responsibly with this
horror. And stop the damage that it continues to inflict on its own
cause.
A thorough and truly independent investigation of the baby shower
killings is required NOW. Justice and accountability demand it. So does
a strategy that is dependent on winning "hearts and minds".
Tom Andrews
Tom Andrews, is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar and a Robina Senior Human Rights Fellow at Yale Law School. A former Member of Congress from the First Congressional District of Maine, he was a co-founder of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Tom served as National Director of Win Without War, and President of United to End Genocide. He has worked with political organizers and human rights advocates in Cambodia, Indonesia, Algeria, Croatia, Yemen and Ukraine, among others. He has a Washington DC-based consulting practice.
When it comes to Afghanistan, "military victory" is an
oxymoron. Even President Obama and his Defense Secretary Robert Gates
say so. Repeatedly.
The only path to peaceful resolution to the Afghanistan conundrum,
they point out, is by winning the "hearts and minds" of the Afghan
people.
That is why the grim news from Afghanistan about the cover up of the a
botched US military raid of a baby shower near Gardez is so
devastating. Unfortunately, the public response to-date from US and NATO
officials in Kabul has been dreadful. It turns out that the Obama
administration's Afghanistan strategy is being defeated by
self-inflicted wounds, and it is unclear that US officials over there
even have a clue that they continue to inflict them.
This is why a truly independent investigation of what happened is so
critical to the President's strategy in Afghanistan. Please join
our campaign calling on the president to investigate the baby shower
raid that resulted in the killing of innocent Afghans, including two
pregnant women.
If you haven't read about this
horrendous incident, and the US response to it, brace yourself.
Afghan investigators are claiming that US Special Operations forces
tried to cover up the horrific killing of five Afghan citizens in
February following a raid of what turned out to be a baby shower.
Three women were killed. Two of them were pregnant. Also killed was a
police commander and his brother, a government prosecutor.
As if this wasn't bad enough, military officials went about fueling
Taliban claims about how barbaric the foreign military occupation is by
immediately putting out false information about the raid. They claimed
that NATO soldiers had stumbled upon the "bodies of three women who
had been tied up, gagged and killed" after the raid was over. According
to the New York Times, military officials also claimed at
the time that the bodies showed signs of puncture and slashing wounds
from a knife and appeared to have died several hours before the raid.
They went on to imply that the women had been killed by their own
families. CNN reported the story under the headline: "Bodies Found
Gagged, Bound after Afghan 'Honor Killing'" .
Now it turns out that the claims by the US military were false. The London
Times and New York Times reported this week that Afghan
investigators have determined that American forces tampered with
evidence at the scene and even "dug bullets out of their victims bodies"
after the killing.
The US led military command finally admitted on Sunday night that
their previous denials of any involvement in the killing of the women
were false. Special Forces had, indeed, killed them. Still, they
denied any cover up. A US military official declared: "We strongly deny
having dug any bullets out of bodies. There is simply no evidence."
While denying any tampering with evidence, he went on to say that the
military is "further investigating" the incident. Who else might
possibly have had a motive to cover up the evidence at the scene was
left to the imagination.
The Taliban could have hardly made this up to fuel their campaign
against the foreign invaders and military occupiers.
Don't get me wrong -- I think that the current US strategy in
Afghanistan is a grave mistake and cannot be set right by correcting
the Pentagon's botched reaction to a horribly botched raid. But, this
incident is one more illustration of why a military led strategy in
Afghanistan -- that is tone deaf to the damage that something like this
does to its own cause -- is doomed to failure. Nothing short a complete
demilitarization of US Afghanistan policy is required. But, while no
one his holding their breath that this is in the cards, at the very
least the administration can take steps to deal responsibly with this
horror. And stop the damage that it continues to inflict on its own
cause.
A thorough and truly independent investigation of the baby shower
killings is required NOW. Justice and accountability demand it. So does
a strategy that is dependent on winning "hearts and minds".
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy