Sunday, June 24, 2012

Sunday Globe Special: No More Airstrikes in Afghanistan

It's a plea from me as well as a lie from NATO:

"US General John Allen promised Karzai that there would no longer be any airstrikes against Afghan homes or in Afghan villages....  

You have no idea how elated I was when I read that in my Sunday Globe.

I should have known better:

On Sunday, however, US officials said Allen’s order did not necessarily go that far, saying that NATO would continue to conduct operations against insurgents who use civilian dwellings for shelter....

In other words, NO CHANGE AT ALL!!

Yeah, those apologies ringing real hollow right now.

Which means a continuation of these kinds of things:

"Afghan civilians perish in airstrikes" May 08, 2012

KABUL - NATO airstrikes killed Afghan civilians in two provinces, local officials reported Monday. The casualties are undermining efforts by Karzai, NATO, and, in particular, the United States to win the hearts and minds of Afghans in the more than decadelong war....  

We lost those long ago, and it is really disgusting to see that term still being trotted out by the war-promoting paper.

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Of course, we get the same old complaints -- and so it goes. We get a cover-up, I mean, inquiry and more lies from the U.N.  And oh, yeah, we got the bad guys with the next one.  Somehow the Globe missed this one, though.

Then we get to do it all over again with a predawn bombing of a wedding, with more complaints because of the "vans piled with the dead bodies of women and children," followed by the blaming of the victims based on what some doctor said -- and so it goes. Just winning hearts and minds.

And as if that were not enough misery heaped upon the Afghan people: 

"Afghan civilians perish in airstrikes" May 08, 2012

KABUL - In northern Sar-e Pol province, floods caused by heavy rains destroyed or damaged dozens of mud-built houses in several villages Sunday night, lawmakers from the province said.

Among the 24 or more who perished in the disaster were villagers attending a wedding in the rugged region, the lawmakers said. 

:-(  

It's either that or an airstrike!

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"Up to 100 feared dead in Afghanistan earthquakes" y Heidi Vogt  |  Associated Press  



An Afghan man mourned relatives killed in Baghlan Province, where magnitude 5.4 and 5.7 quakes struck Monday (Jawed Basharat/Associated Press)." 

Oh, those look like little people (sob).

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Also see: California Landslide

"Flooding in northern Afghanistan kills at least 37" Associated Press, June 24, 2012

KABUL — Flash floods have swept northern Afghanistan, killing at least 37 people, Afghan and UN authorities said Saturday.

More than 100 homes, hundreds of acres of farmland, and farm animals were destroyed by the floods that followed four or five days of heavy rain in the region.  

Just what a war-weary and hungry people need.

Abdul Hai Khateby, the spokesman in Ghor Province, said 24 people have been killed in four districts, including the provincial capital of Chaghcharan.

“Many, many houses have been destroyed, and there are reports of lots of cattle and other animals being killed,” Khateby said. “It is cloudy, and we expect more rain.”

The provincial spokesman of Badakhshan, Abdul Marouf Rasekh, said that 13 people were killed Friday night in the Yaftal district and that four other districts have been affected.

The Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority said an estimated 135 houses had been destroyed in Badakhshan, forcing residents to flee.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said many of the unpaved, rutted roads in the area have been severely flooded, making aid distribution difficult.

Elsewhere, a bomb exploded at a music store Saturday in Jalalabad, the provincial capital of Nangarhar in the east.

Provincial spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai said that the shopkeeper and one of his customers were killed in the blast and that two other people were wounded.

The US-led coalition said two NATO service members were killed Friday by insurgents in southern Afghanistan. So far this year, 203 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan.

Last week was particularly violent in Afghanistan, as insurgents stepped up attacks against international forces. The fighting suggests the Taliban are not planning to wait for international combat forces to complete their exit from Afghanistan at the end of 2014....  

It isn't even going to be an exit, but who wants to nitpick with a lying, pos war paper anymore?

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