`"The aerial destruction that rained down on a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Kunduz, a provincial capital in northeast Afghanistan, on October 3 puts an exclamation point on the story of Americas 14 years of warfare in that Central Asian country. At least 22 people were killed, among them doctors, other medical personnel, and patients, including three children, and dozens were wounded in the attack. Beyond the obvious, immediate implications of this massacrewhich serves as a reminder that for all of those 14 years, the United States has engaged in a brutal, mismanaged and ill-conceived warmore broadly the ruins of the Kunduz hospital are a symbol of Americas unfortunate reliance on air power, including drone strikes and bombers, to combat a host of insurgent groups in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and Libya. After the events in Kunduz, Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym, MSF, issued a series of scathing statements, demanding an investigation of the incident by an impartial international body under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed. Christopher Stokes, MSFs general director, said that the group is disgusted by the statements of Afghan government officials who justified the attack by claiming that Taliban fighters were present. Not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the MSF hospital compound prior to the US airstrike on Saturday morning, said Stokes. - Source ` *****************************` The imperial war monger known as Barack Obama has plenty of allies in his quest to murder innocent people for material gain in the ME. Both parties support him in this effort. The US MilitaryIndustrial complex supports him. The banks support him. Oil interests support him. Crazed chick hawks support him. Those who hate support him. By their tacit silence on this issue, demented Christians support his actions in the ME. The Israeli lobby and cartels support this. America has no moral high ground anymore. War and lies within lies. However hyperbolic my words are in describing those who champion death and destruction for ideological and/or economic gain, it pales to insignificance by the sheer hatred it is generating against the US amongst people in the Middle East and Europe. This is the Obama legacy.
There's not much in Afghanistan aside from opium. It's a narco-state, ill suited for any type of central government. I didn't oppose the 2001 invasion following up the attacks on 9/11. There is no doubt Afghanistan was a haven for global terrorists along the lines of Osama Bin Laden, however most of them have moved to other areas, i.e. Pakistan. What remains are the Taliban, and while they are not "good guys" by any measure...I don't think their intent is any sort of global caliphate along the lines of ISIS. The problem is the U.S. is supposed to be maintaining a minimal combat footprint and this attack on the civilian hospital seems out of character. The rules of engagement are very narrow and this appears to be a clear violation of that.
` To my way of looking at it, historically, Afghanistan can never be tamed. You speak with authority. Brief and to the point. I appreciate that. Thanks.
The majority of Afghanistan lives in 3rd World conditions. Their chief export is opium which is later processed into heroin and sold throughout Europe. Basically.... an Afghani family - is supported by establishing small farms - that grow opium - which ends up being processed into heroin, sold and eventually injected...into an addict's vein meanwhile most of Afghanistan is more like this - You have to wonder how much can be done with so little to work with in terms of nation building; certainly a military solution is not viable.
If Gen. Curtis LeMay were still alive today and was in charge of the Air Force you wouldn't hear him saying "we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age." What Gen. LeMay would be saying, "Someone beat us to it."
Afghanistan sits on a massive amount of mineral wealth. It's hard to get to without a significant investment in infrastructure, though, and without a stable political environment that will never happen. They are their own worst enemies. http://www.groundreport.com/afghani...-mineral-wealth-and-hydrocarbons-said-karzai/ A little factoid I ran across some years ago in Louis Nizer's book on Nazi Germany, in a brief bio of his previous journalism career, was that the U.S. built Afghanistan's first paved road, in 1934. I haven't run across that anywhere else, but then I haven't looked it up, either.
This is true, reportedly vast reserves of lithium reside in Afghanistan, among other minerals, worth potentially approaching $1 Trillion. However it's business as usual in terms of the opium poppies as the U.S. turns their back on it. Afghanistan set a record for growing opium in 2014, after thirteen years of occupation by U.S. forces... Basically as heroin use grows in U.S., poppy crops thrive in Afghanistan as they are approaching a 60% market share of the heroin trade derived from poppy filelds globally. It's a narco-state, equivalent to Columbia's cocaine empire. It remains one of the poorest countries in the World in terms of GDP, and I suppose the U.S. turns a blind eye as the drug trade is about the only viable export...aside from perhaps rugs. Given their poltical instability, absolute 3rd World infrastructure, these mineral resources may remain untapped for many years. Then again, their culture is not interested in being Westernized.
Looks like the vector to the target was wrong... U.S. General Says Kunduz Hospital Strike Was Avoidable NOV. 25, 2015 The top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John F. Campbell, said Wednesday that several service members had been suspended from duty after an internal military investigation of the American airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz last month.
` 'More Questions Than Answers': MSF Not Buying Pentagon Probe into Hospital Attack - What about the hour-long attempts to stop the bombing? Why is this damning report being released the day before Thanksgiving? And what does this say about the competency of the U.S. military?
Granny says, "Dat's right - dem jihadis wanna kill us... ISIS Lethal Threat;Its Global Caliphate Would Extend to United States January 12, 2016 | Testifying in the House Armed Services Committee today, former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell said that the Islamic State, which he referred to as ISIS, poses a a significant strategic and lethal threat to the United States of America and that it envisions a global caliphate that would extend to the United States of America itself.
But no criminal charges... More than a Dozen Punished for Mistaken Afghan Hospital Attack Mar 16, 2016 | WASHINGTON More than a dozen U.S. military personnel have been disciplined but face no criminal charges for mistakes that led to the bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed 42 people in Afghanistan last year, U.S. defense officials say.
US forces 'punished for hospital attack'... Kunduz hospital bombing: 16 US forces 'disciplined' Thu, 28 Apr 2016 - Sixteen US military personnel are disciplined over last year's bombing of an Afghan hospital in Kunduz that left 42 dead, officials say.
A lethal chain of mistakes... 'Fog of War' Led to Deadly Kunduz Hospital Strike Apr 29, 2016 | A lethal chain of mistakes by U.S. air and ground forces in the "fog of war" led to the relentless AC-130U gunship attack on the Kunduz hospital that killed at least 42 last October, but the tragic errors did not rise to the level of war crimes or court-martial offenses, U.S. Central Command said Friday.
Aircrew had misgivings about Kunduz hospital strike... Aircrew Had Doubts in Kunduz Airstrike; Ground Team Said 'Engage' Apr 29, 2016 | The crew of the AC-103U gunship circled the target for more than an hour, disbelieving that this was the building they were supposed to hit and repeatedly asking for confirmation from the Special Forces team on the ground.
Lessons learned from Kunduz tragedy to be taught to all commands... All Commands to Teach Lessons Learned from Kunduz Airstrike Tragedy May 02, 2016 | Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has ordered the military to teach the lessons learned from the Kunduz airstrike that destroyed a hospital and killed at least 42 to all units before they deploy, with an emphasis on what to do when their technology breaks down. See also: Survivors Call for US Troops to Face Trial over Afghan Hospital Apr 30, 2016 - Survivors of a U.S. air strike on a hospital in Afghanistan have called for those responsible to go on trial and dismissed an American military investigation that said the bombardment did not amount to a war crime.
Rules of engagement tightened after Kunduz hospital strike... US Tightens Air War Rules of Engagement after Kunduz Hospital Strike May 26, 2016 | The lessons learned from the airstrike on the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan have reverberated through U.S. Central Command and led pilots to pay even closer attention to the already strict rules of engagement, the top general for the Iraq-Syria air war said Thursday.
