Related: NATO Protecting International Drug Trade Routes in Afghanistan
Just wondering why the Boston Globe felt free to ignore and omit this item. They can't NOT KNOW, readers.
"Afghans threaten US troops over civilian deaths" by Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
An angry Afghan man with a thick black beard ranted wildly at the U.S. officials, shouting about how their overnight raid had killed 16 civilians in his village. An Afghan elder cried out in grief that his son and four grandsons were among the dead.
I will bet he was one of these guys:
US Colonel Greg Julian with Afghan village elders in Inzeri yesterday. US commanders distributed $40,000 and apologized to relatives of 15 people killed in a recent US raid. (Jason Straziuso/Associated Press)
Honestly, I would rather JUST LEAVE and STOP KILLING THEM and THEIR FAMILIES because THEY NEVER DID ANYTHING TO US!!!!
More: Afghans Angry About AmeriKan Murders
One after another, a long line of government officials, villagers and community leaders told American military officials at the Laghman governor's compound that Afghan soldiers must be allowed to take part in such raids. Several predicted increased violence against U.S. forces if more nighttime operations take place.
"If these operations are again conducted in our area, all of our people are ready to carry out jihad. We cannot tolerate seeing the dead bodies of our children and women anymore," Malik Malekazratullah, the Afghan who ranted at the Americans, told The Associated Press....
Who could?
The problem, Afghan officials say, comes when ordinary civilians hear the commotion. Fearing robbers or an attack from a hostile tribe, the close-knit villagers grab their guns and run outside or fire from their homes. U.S. forces then fire back and end up killing civilians doing nothing more than answering the call to defend their neighbors.
What rotten journalism!
The residents hear a commotion, but somehow THEY FIRED FIRST!
Pffft!
Afghan officials say an overnight raid Jan. 7 in the village of Masmoot in Laghman killed 19 civilians. A raid in Kapisa on Jan. 19 killed 15 people, mostly civilians. And a second Laghman raid Jan. 23, in Guloch village, killed 16, they say. Even if the Special Forces nail their intended target, when raids go wrong they end up killing Afghan civilians as well, turning whole villages against the Afghan government and the presence of U.S. forces.
Ahem: It is TIME to LEAVE THOSE PEOPLE ALONE because 911 was an INSIDE JOB with the "pasty mastermind" -- the dead guy -- placed in the strategic Central Asian energy and drug area. And CUI BONO?
"Maybe there were only two or three insurgents in Guloch, but I can tell you that there are thousands now," Abdul Qadir Kochai, a member of parliament on a delegation sent by Karzai, told the U.S. officials.
It is TIME to LEAVE!!!!
Some 60 people gathered in the Laghman governor's compound on Wednesday to air their complaints. It was the fifth meeting held there over the two civilian death incidents in Laghman. The U.S. officials listened dutifully to the complaints. They apologized for unintentional deaths and promised increased cooperation.
Apologies just do not cut it anymore. LEAVE!
"We know these raids have left many widows and orphans, and we want your advice on how we should help them," Fuhr told the group Wednesday. One day earlier, U.S. officials paid Afghan villagers in neighboring Kapisa province $40,000 for the deaths of 15 Afghans there.
Need I spell it out for you? L-E-A-V-E, LEAVE!!! RIGHT NOW!!!
Laghman's governor, Latifullah Mashal, called for more U.S.-Afghan coordination in the overnight operations. He said the Taliban are purposely mingling among villagers in the hopes that civilians die.
I am tired of Muslim-hating, Zionist lies and propaganda, folks. I really, really am. The same repetitive slop time after time after time!
"One young boy said his whole family was killed, and now he wants to become a suicide bomber. This is a very negative message," Mashal said. "The Taliban are succeeding at having a whole village turn against the government. They are being told to do this."
Col. Greg Julian, who led the U.S. team in the meeting on behalf of Gen. David McKiernan, the overall commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, said most overnight raids are carried out without any civilian deaths or injuries....
And, of course, if the U.S. Army says it it is God’s honest gospel, isn’t it?
Apparently, the locals were not convinced:
"Afghan Street Protests After US Raid Kills 2
Hundreds of Afghans demonstrated Sunday against an overnight U.S. military raid that one villager said killed several civilians. The American military said its forces only killed two militants. The angry protesters gathered on the main highway linking Kabul and Kandahar near the site of the raid, the latest to stir up Afghan ire against foreign forces accused of killing civilians....
Wouldn’t YOU be ANGRY if they KILLED YOUR FAMILY MEMBERS, AmeriKan?
No?
The U.S. military said Sunday’s operation in southeastern Ghazni province targeted a militant who coordinates attacks using roadside bombs and other weapons. It said coalition forces conducting the raid called out for all inhabitants to exit the targeted home, but several people barricaded themselves inside one building. Coalition troops forced their way in and killed two militants, the U.S. military said in a statement....
On Sunday, Baz Mohammad, a villager from Qarabagh district who participated in the highway demonstration, claimed that six people were killed in the Ghazni operation, but no officials confirmed that figure. Mohammad also said one woman was bitten by a military dog. The U.S. military statement said a ''noncombatant'' was injured in the operation but gave no details.
On Saturday, an Afghan tribal leader from southeastern Paktika province was fatally shot by a NATO patrol after the vehicle he was in failed to stop when soldiers signaled it to, the NATO-led force said in a statement Sunday. A second Afghan was wounded....
Yeah, HOW MANY CHECKPOINT KILLINGS -- in Palestine as well as Afghanistan and Iraq -- are IGNORED or NOT REPORTED by the MSM?
Who are the Taliban, anyway?
"Something of a catchall term for loosely affiliated insurgents without a singular command structure. Often, the Afghan government favors the phrase 'enemies of the state' (New York Times July 24, 2007)."
"The Taliban is growing and creating new alliances not because its sectarian religious practices have become popular, but because it is the only available umbrella for national liberation," says Pakistani historian and political commentator Tariq Ali. "As the British and the Soviets discovered to their cost in the preceding two centuries, Afghans never like being occupied."
Also see: Afghanistan's Other Government
And today, readers?
"More and more, people here look back to the era of harsh Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, describing it as a time of security and peace."
Oh, oh, oh!!!! I'm so offended by the AmeriKan MSM and its bullshit!
Oh, one more thing:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
