McChrystal's new strategy, aimed at winning hearts and minds, suffered a double blow today, the second at the hands of his own troops. It was disclosed that US troops had broken into a Swedish charity-run hospital in breach of international law to search for Taliban suspects.[...]
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, which runs the hospital in Wardak province, south-west of Kabul, accused the US Army's 10th Mountain Division of forcing its way into its hospital without permission on Wednesday, kicking down doors, tying up four hospital guards and two people visiting relatives, and forcing patients out of beds.
On leaving the hospital at around 12 pm, IMF issued verbal "orders"/instructions; that on receiving any patient that could be an insurgent the hospital staff has to report to the Coalition Forces who would then determine if the hospital would be permitted or not of treating such patient.“This is simply not acceptable. It is not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement between NGOs and ISAF. We demand guarantees from the IMF command that such violations will not be repeated and that this is made clear to commanders in the field. SCA can not and will not tolerate this kind of treatment by the IMF. Nor is the SCA bound by any orders from IMF regarding to whom treatment can be given” says Anders Fange, Country Director, SCA.
The hospital is located in an area where community acceptance is essential to the continued functioning and safety of the hospital and its staff. The hospital has faced a further intrusion on 13 July, when private security guards escorting a convoy came under attack from insurgents and sought shelter/treatment in a very aggressive manner in the hospital and proceeded to assault staff and damage property.
This latest incident comes at a time when a clinic in Paktika was attacked on 26 August by ANSF/IMF following reports of an alleged AOG commander inside.
The other faux pas was, of course, the “joint” air raid on some fuel trucks that killed scores of Afghan civilians.
Berlin defended the raid as "militarily necessary" to protect German troops, even though it went against the express orders of the new US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, to safeguard civilians.[...]
The German government said the officer feared two hijacked oil tankers, stuck in a riverbed, were to be used for a suicide bombing of the German base at Kunduz, in the north of the country.
[...]
The raid was carried out by the US air force but McChrystal distanced himself from it, apologising to the Afghan government and saying he had not ordered it.
He just provided the personnel and equipment .
Abdul Matin Sarfaraz reports from Kunduz Province that locals are now saying that the NATO bombing of two hijacked fuel trucks killed more that 150 civilians and left 20 others wounded. Some 15 children were among the dead. Villagers told the visiting reporter that the Taliban had left the site after inviting the villagers to take the petroleum in the trucks, which had become hopelessly mired in a riverbed.[...]
The intrepid Rajiv Chandrasekaran reports that the German colonel who called down the 500-pound bomb on the fuel trucks did so on the basis of aerial surveillance footage and a single local informant; as a result, he assumed that the dozens of figures around the truck were Taliban.
[...]
A Taliban-set roadside bomb hit a German convoy in Kunduz province on Saturday, likely in vengeance for the NATO air strike on hijacked fuel trucks that killed so many locals. A Taliban-set roadside bomb hit a German convoy in Kunduz province on Saturday, likely in vengeance for the NATO air strike on hijacked fuel trucks that killed so many locals.
[...]
The Kunduz air strike is a much bigger deal in Europe and Afghanistan than it is in the US. The Potsdam district attorney's office is even considering filing criminal charges against the German colonel who ordered the air strike.
[...]
Kunduz residents are furious. This weekend, an NYT reporter and his translator appear to have been kidnapped when they went out to the site of the bombing. One Afghan pundit remarked dryly that when the US recently announced a new strategy in Afghanistan, no one suspected it would be . . . mass murder.
Where have they been?
The Kunduz bombing gone awry, and perhaps also the disappointing election, seems to have provoked an outburst of frankness among European politicians so far unmatched in the counterparts in the Obama administration.
What a surprise.
European publics are opposed to the Afghanistan mission by increasingly large margins, and it is not impossible that in 5 years, the US will find itself almost alone there among Western powers. Were the NATO members to gradually desert Obama there, it might even have the effect of breaking up NATO or much damaging its effectiveness. Even now, the bickering over who is providing what support is not edifying.
Hey, Mr. O, look at the bright side…at the rate things are going here, you won’t be president in 5 years to take the heat.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet. --Mark Twain
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