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Grow Up Sarah

Among other attacks, Sarah Palin is out on the campaign trail this week accusing Obama of dishonoring the troops, in essence calling them babykillers. This stems from an old charge she (her debate coaches) have resurrected about the Democrat, claiming he said “all we’re doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians” some 14 […]

Among other attacks, Sarah Palin is out on the campaign trail this week accusing Obama of dishonoring the troops, in essence calling them babykillers. This stems from an old charge she (her debate coaches) have resurrected about the Democrat, claiming he said “all we’re doing in Afghanistan is air-raiding villages and killing civilians” some 14 months ago.

Such a statement, she said in last week’s debate, is “a reckless, reckless comment and untrue comment, again, hurts our cause.”

No, Sarah, accidentally killing civilians in a country you are supposed to be liberating from the bad guys is “reckless, reckless,” and most definitely, “hurts our cause.”

Today:

An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to two American military officials. (snip)

The investigator, Brig. Gen. Michael W. Callan of the Air Force, concluded that many more civilians, including women and children, had been buried in the rubble than the military had asserted, one of the military officials said.

A day ago:

Up to 3,200 civilians have been killed in NATO and US action in Afghanistan since 2005 but compensation payouts have been far lower than in other global cases, according to research by a US professor.

The use of air power is growing, raising risks for civilians, University of New Hampshire professor Marc W. Herold says in research released on the anniversary of the October 7, 2001 launch of the invasion of Afghanistan.

Get your head out of the mud and see the situation for what it is. NATO forces are killing civilians. This is not to say that individual soldiers are murderers, that they are rampaging across Afghanistan like bloodthirsty barbarians; it is not to say that the killings are premeditated or purposeful. It is to say that our tactical operations are becoming counterproductive to our mission there. Ignore this, and disregard everything we’ve learned in wars past. Ignore this, and put our troops in greater danger on the ground. Ignore this and further confuse any working moral compass we have left as an enlightened nation.

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