A few days ago I posted a blog about a U.S. airstrike killing three children in Afghanistan. It’s useful to examine the ISAF’s response to understand how the military’s propaganda apparatus works as the communications staff fights the “information war” against the Taliban. Here’s the initial ISAF press release on the strike: KABUL, Afghanistan – [...]
Archive for August, 2009
Nothing to See Here, Folks: Pentagon Standard Operating Procedure on Afghan Civilian Casualties
Posted: August 8, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, airstrikes, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, Greg Julian
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U.S. Policymakers Let the Vietnam Comparison Out of the Bag
Posted: August 7, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, escalation, Vietnam
U.S. officials and those in their orbit are now using the words “Vietnam” and “Afghanistan” in the same sentence. Top U.S. officials have reached out to a leading Vietnam war scholar to discuss the similarities of that conflict 40 years ago with American involvement in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is seeking ways to isolate an [...]
On Afghanistan, Five-Sided Backpedaling
Posted: August 6, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Congressional Research Service, escalation, Levin, Lieberman, McChrystal, Obama, Rory Stewart
The Pentagon is backpedaling on leaked reports of pending troop increase requests from Gen. McChrystal. WASHINGTON, Aug 5 (Reuters) – An assessment of the war in Afghanistan by the top U.S. and NATO commander there is no longer expected by mid-August and will not include a request for extra troops, the Pentagon said on Wednesday. [...]
Hiroshima
Posted: August 6, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: civilian casualties, civilian deaths, George Zabelka, Hiroshima, Jesus, nonviolence
Sixty-four years ago today, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, instantly killing about 80,000 people and eventually leading to the death of between 90,000-140,000 people. Forty years later, Catholic chaplain George Zabelka, who had blessed the crews of the bombers that dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, gave a speech titled, [...]
Today, It’s Three Children
Posted: August 5, 2009 in UncategorizedTags: Afghanistan, Arghandab, civilian casualties, civilian deaths
BBC reports that U.S. forces piloting helicopters killed three children last night in the Arghandab district of Afghanistan. Enraged locals took the bodies to Kandahar to display them to local officials. (Warning: graphic photo.) “What was the fault of my innocent children? They were not Taliban,” Mr Rahim said. “Did they come here to build [...]
