The United States military rejected on wednesday, the charge made by the Afghan government of 140 civilian deaths in a recent bombing in the western province of Farah. They said that instead of 140, about 20~30 were killed, but they said that up to 65 Taliban soldiers had also been killed.
This incident conflicted the statement from the American forces on May 5 made by the new American ambassador, Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry at that time, that the coalition forces would do their best to change their war tactics to minimize the civilian casualties in the future. The debate intensified, and to make things worse, the NATO-force confirmed on Wednesday that another airstrike killed 8 civilians in Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan. They also said that the soldiers used civilians as human shields during the Tuesday airstrike.
In response to this problem, retired general, General Eikenberry acknowledged the pain that the civilians of Afghanistan were going through. He was questioned by the Afghans, the wisdom of dropping 2-000 pound bombs on houses when it is unknown who might be inside. The ambassador called the air strike a tragedy and promised to reduce the chances of civilian casualties sharply in the future. He also flew to Farah and expressed his condolences and met with the several hundred elder leaders from the affected villages. “I assure the people of Afghanistan that the United States will work tirelessly with your government, army and police to find ways to reduce the price paid by civilians, and avoid tragedies like what occurred in Bala Baluk,” he said. “As U.S. ambassador, and with my previous experience as a soldier, I make this a solemn pledge.”
However, the American forces said that the casualty was not entirely their fault. Before the air strike, there was a ground fighting involved between the Talibans and the Afghan soldiers. The Afghan soldiers were outnumbered by approximately 300 Talibs, and asked for backup. The coalition forces then called for an air strike. The military said that the air support "provided fires in coordination with the ground commander on buildings and a tree grove insurgents were firing from and massing in." However, the ground commander is still unidentified.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The U.S. military must be more careful and learn to change their approaches. If they do not, they face the risk of the alienating the entire Afghan population and weakening the power of the Afghan government. I know that war brings unwanted consequences that must be taken for victory. However, if the U.S. military took more precautions before dropping their 2-000 pound bombs on houses and confirmed the need, a lot more people could have been saved and earned the trust and support of the Afghan population.
No comments:
Post a Comment