Karzai To Bush: ‘Roll Back’ The Use Of Airstrikes In Afghanistan
Karzai To Bush: ‘Roll Back’ The Use Of Airstrikes In Afghanistan
On 60 Minutes last night, Afghan President Hamid Karzai described his efforts to get President Bush to “rethink…the use of air force” in Afghanistan, which has killed more than 270 civilians in 17 air strikes in 2007 alone. Karzai says he delivered that message “privately” to President Bush in August using “clear words“:
HAMID KARZAI, AFGHAN PRESIDENT: The Afghan people understand that mistakes are made. But five years on, six years on, definitely, very clearly, they cannot comprehend as to why there is still a need for air power.
PELLEY: You are asking the American government to roll back the air strikes. Do I understand you?
KARZAI: Absolutely. Oh, yes, in clear words.
PELLEY (voice-over): Karzai told us he delivered those words privately to President Bush in August.
Watch it:
The increased use of air strikes is not limited to the war in Afghanistan. U.S. commanders in Iraq are trumpeting the fact that troop casualties have dramatically declined this past month, falling to one of the lowest levels in 2007. But as USA Today reported last week, “the U.S. military has increased air strikes in Iraq four-fold this year.” “The shift means greater safety for our ground troops,” notes Slate’s Fred Kaplan, but “it also generates more local hostility.”
Such increases in “local hostility” undermine the counterinsurgency strategy laid out in the U.S. Army’s field manual, by creating “collateral damage that turns people against the host-nation government and provides insurgents with a major propaganda victory.”
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42 Responses to “Karzai To Bush: ‘Roll Back’ The Use Of Airstrikes In Afghanistan”
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Watch it Karzai! They might "roll back" over you with a Humvee if you complain too much.
October 29th, 2007 at 2:52 pmThere are three serial trolls lurking here today.
TCDon
xley
hits
Please do not directly feed the trolls.
October 29th, 2007 at 2:54 pmPut a sock in it, Hamid. After all, our flyboys need to practice somewhere for the big upcoming soiree in Iran.
October 29th, 2007 at 2:54 pmbut... but... air strikes are bringing those dead people freedom!!!
October 29th, 2007 at 2:57 pmAsking a Neo-con NOT to bomb Islamic people????
Are you nuts?
Thats their reason to exist.
October 29th, 2007 at 2:58 pmLet s see there were 68 soldiers killed in September but about
October 29th, 2007 at 3:00 pm1100 Iraqis .
And we call this progress .
Also violence is down because ethnic cleansing has occured in most provinces .
That means only Shite's in Anbar and Sunni's in Dialyla
and more civil war around the corner . Why wont the traditional press
report this .
Looks like it's the fighter pilot, bomber pilot mentality - Dump And Run.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:00 pmCollateral damage just doesn't count.
Ooooh, look! The Bushpuppet speaks!
Dream on, Mr. Karzai. You signed a deal with the Devil when you took what the Bushies offered you - and you will pay.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:09 pmSomeone cut the puppet strings.
-Shotgun Dick Cheney
October 29th, 2007 at 3:10 pmAfghan President Hamid Karzai described his efforts to get President Bush to “rethink…the use of air force†in Afghanistan, which has killed more than 270 civilians in 17 air strikes in 2007 alone.
doesn't 'rethink' imply thinking in the first place? sorry karzai!
October 29th, 2007 at 3:11 pmKarzais really stuck. Being puppet head of the US pretend govt is not sitting so well with his people. Now the country is unraveling thanks to bush incompetence and his masters aren't happy either.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:12 pmSometime during this interview, I only saw a small part, he said something to the effect that the people of Afghanistan now feel we are more evil than the Russians.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:12 pmLooks like it’s the fighter pilot, bomber pilot mentality - Dump And Run.
Collateral damage just doesn’t count.
Comment by celtic cynic — October 29, 2007 @ 3:00 pm
At least a criminal suicide bomber dies with his/her victims.
But of course, pilots are sure to aim their bombs accurately so they do not exceed their daily allocated quota of women and children.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:15 pmThe air war that America has waged in Iraq and Afghanistan is probably one of the least known aspects of these conflicts by the American people. It is also a way for war to be waged in a very impersonal way, in a room where missiles and bombs are sent on their way by people who do not have to witness the results of their carnage. In that 60 Minutes interview, the military would not comment on that Afghan house that killed those children, probably realizing that their actions were indefensible. But that provides little comfort for that little boy who needlessly lost his family when the Americans bombed his house, because America is so interested in spreading democracy, no matter how many people it takes for America to kill in order to promote their cause.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:15 pmThe real question is whether the government releases information as to the human collateral damage resulting from the air campaign. The use of air power is extremely impersonal. When it goes wrong, lots of innocent people tend to die. It promotes the feeling that the US does not care about the Iraqi civilians they are suppose to be protecting.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:23 pmHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Way to go, TCDon! Outing yourself as a Nazi.
Helluva Freudian slip, there, boy. ;o)
October 29th, 2007 at 3:30 pm"You play the game, with the bravery of being out of range."
October 29th, 2007 at 3:31 pm- Roger Waters
#16. spoken like a true anti-semite “progressive†Nazi.
Comment by TCDon — October 29, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
You're a progressive?
October 29th, 2007 at 3:33 pm#16. spoken like a true anti-semite “progressive†Nazi.
Comment by TCDon — October 29, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
ah, TeensieDong, spoken like a true knuckle-draggin, mom's basement dwelling, sheeple boy, closeted GOOPer
October 29th, 2007 at 3:34 pm(GOOP=Grand Old Oily Pedophiles)
October 29th, 2007 at 3:34 pmShayne-thanks-I totally missed that!sheesh-what a dip.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:35 pmI saw most of this interview. The military guys were talking about "proportionality", which seemed to mean that the "bad" guys' deaths outweighed the unfortunate deaths of civilians.
I think they're doing more air campaigns to keep up their skills for you-know-what and to reduce the number of troop deaths so they can say things are improving. Civilians don't seem to matter to most of those in charge.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:35 pmCivilians don’t seem to matter to most of those in charge.
That's why they came up with the term "collateral damage"-THAT is a term that makes me sick!!!!
October 29th, 2007 at 3:37 pmkindA like "enhanced inTERRO(r)Gation techniques"
October 29th, 2007 at 3:38 pmWell, when you have too much "collateral damage" and "enhanced interrogation techniques" you know what you get next? BLOWBACK!
October 29th, 2007 at 3:39 pm24 - Eh, they're just brown people anyway. Who cares?
/sarc off
October 29th, 2007 at 3:41 pm#16 - "spoken like a true anti-semite “progressive†Nazi." Comment by TCDon — October 29, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
Yuo're getting your slurs mixed up! Progressives are Commies! It's the Regressives (Republicans, neo-cons, conservatives, ditto-heads) that are the fascist Nazi's!
You'll have to take a time-out now for your mistaking the right for the left. Don't worry, it'll begin to making sense as you think it over.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:41 pmDamn, I always thought that self abuse and self loathing were a deep part of a neocon psyche, but TCDon calling himself a nazi is an unexpected truth.
Carry on neocon. When the self hate gets too much to handle, go ahead and spoil the pelt. We won't mind.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:45 pm28 -- Silly Democrat!
"Republican thinking" is an oxymoron.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:46 pm"Collateral damage" is bad enough. What has me perplexed is the apparent belief that it's OK to kill suspected criminals. Imagine how much this will aid law enforcement. Now, if someone is suspected of a crime, we can just hit their alleged home with a Tomahawk. No need to risk lives by making arrests. No need to pay a prosecutor to assemble a case. No need for trials where, gasp, there is a chance the prosecution may be proven wrong.
American justice is broken. Is there any chance it can be fixed?
October 29th, 2007 at 3:55 pmNo. TP repositioned my post by deleting some posts before it. I was responding to a heavily anti-semitic post from a “progressive.†The post to which I was responding used to be #16. Now it is gone.
Comment by TCDon — October 29, 2007 @ 3:53 pm
Ah, the 'conspiracy' defense!!! But you ARE anti-semitic, racist, homophobic and sexist by nature! That's what draws you to the GOP after all!
October 29th, 2007 at 4:03 pm#16 - “spoken like a true anti-semite “progressive†Nazi.†Comment by TCDon — October 29, 2007 @ 3:26 pm
Progressive Nazi? That's like saying you're a straight gay man! Sorry, but Nazis are RIGHT WING EXTREMISTS - and that would be YOU - little anti-semite!
October 29th, 2007 at 4:04 pmTwo comments. On 60 minutes last night, the spokesman at that air strike center (in some undisclosed ME country) said that there are an increasing number of airstrikes because there are too few boots on the ground in Afghanistan. Also, he also said that out of 260 "collateral deaths," associated with those air strikes, not ONE "bad guy" was killed. If some country was doing this to us, we'd sure hate them, wouldn't we?
I'm so ashamed of this country.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:15 pmMuslims are to Bush what the Jews were to Hitler.
No troll here can prove otherwise. Just look at what he's done.
As for the little boy in Afghanistan (I think he is 9) what do you think he will feel about Americans in 10-15 years? He already hates them for what they needlessly did to his family - when he's older he will be able to apply that to what happened to his country.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:40 pmDidn't this guy also sit on the board at Exxon or Chevron or something? And now he's worried about his people?
October 29th, 2007 at 4:41 pmWhat has me perplexed is the apparent belief that it’s OK to kill suspected criminals.
Comment by pete — October 29, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
Personally, I think that this kind of thinking really became prevalent when Israel started to blow people away from helicopters (never mind the "collateral damage") and then would explain that they were aiming at "suspects" as though that made it okay somehow.
October 29th, 2007 at 4:54 pmIt promotes the feeling that the US does not care about the Iraqi civilians they are suppose to be protecting.
Comment by JMOHR
If the US government gave a rats as* about the people in Iraq and Afghanistan, they would leave. Because that's what the people in those two countries want us to do. Go away and leave them the hell alone.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:11 pmAmerican justice is broken. Is there any chance it can be fixed?
Comment by pete
Not as long as the Republicans rule.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:13 pmI'm trying not to respond to stinky Trolls like don, but this one I had to address:
I was responding to a heavily anti-semitic post from a “progressive.†The post to which I was responding used to be #16. Now it is gone.
Comment by TCDon
I don't know what the "heavily anti-semitic" post said, but my guess is that it wasn't posted by a progressive, but by one of don's ilk who are here trying to make the progressives look extreme. It's their new modus operandi. They can't debate us and we are getting pretty good at ignoring the stinky Trolls, so they send people to liberal blogs to say something outrageous that will then end up on O'Lielly as an example of the "far left". It looks like TP is on to the ploy though. It was rather serendipitous that the trolls post ended up in the same place, though.
October 29th, 2007 at 5:20 pmSo then, just to verify: We are now using the term "local hostility" in place of "civilian casualties"? Just checking...because that's really what's important here, in case anyone in charge of this whole GWOT nighmare still gives - or EVER gave - a rat's ass.
October 29th, 2007 at 6:03 pmyou mean we're actually keeping count of how many civilians we kill there?. thats odd...
October 29th, 2007 at 7:27 pmincreased use of airstrikes as a substitute for boots on the ground is another way to deflate the number of america troop deaths, which will undoubtedly be touted as a sign of progress
October 30th, 2007 at 5:38 am