The US Military Approves Bombing Children

[xchrom]

http://www.thenation.com/blog/171582/us-military-approves-bombing-children

***SNIP

Now, in a despicable article in Military Times, the US military says that children are legitimate targets in the war in Afghanistan because sometimes the Taliban and other insurgents use kids.

In the original incident, which I cited in October, The New York Times reported it this way:

The…case of three children allegedly killed in a coalition strike was reported by local officials in Helmand Province’s Nawa district. The officials said that the children were killed in a NATO strike on Sunday afternoon as they were gathering dung to burn as fuel, a common practice in the desert reaches of southern Afghanistan where there are few trees.

“When we reached the area I saw the three bodies of children, two boys and one girl, ages 8 to 12 years old. They were from the same family,” said Haji Hayatullah, a member of the tribal council in the Nawa district. Their family is in the livestock business and raises goats and sheep on government land, he said.

[Egalitarian Thug]

1. Omelets, eggs, America is #1! Harrumph! n/t

[marmar]

2. k/r ...... Sadly, no one seems to think this is a big deal.

Collateral damage, you know.

[coalition_unwilling]

3. They were terrorists disguised as children :sarcasm: - n/t

[lunatica]

4. The military has never cared about children or any other collateral damage

Individual soldiers have shown they care, but the military? Not so much.

[coalition_unwilling]

5. The full article in the Nation contains some choice and revealing

quotes from members of our Praetorian Guard.

[woo me with science]

9. It must be okay...

because we have a Democratic President...
...Right?

...But a Marine official here raised questions about whether the children were “innocent.” Before calling for the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System mission in mid-October, Marines observed the children digging a hole in a dirt road in Nawa district, the official said, and the Taliban may have recruited the children to carry out the mission.

Shockingly, the article quotes a senior officer saying that the military isn’t just out to bomb “military age males,” anymore, but kids, too:

“It kind of opens our aperture,” said Army Lt. Col. Marion “Ced” Carrington, whose unit, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, was assisting the Afghan police. “In addition to looking for military-age males, it’s looking for children with potential hostile intent.”

“Opens our aperture,” indeed.

[hughee99]

11. 5 years ago, people would have been jumping over each other here to blame *

for this, now the President isn't even mentioned.

[KoKo]

15. Well we "took out" a l6 year old US Citizen because we thought his cleric father was terrorist..

so the thought is take 'em out just in case they grow up to be questionable. Particularly if you see kids "diggingin the ground."

A whole village in Vietnam was taken out and people seem to forget that or many DU'ers are too young to even realize this is what we have done before and are still doing when we "nation build" in someone else's country.

[woo me with science]

6. Enough yet?

Yet?

[xchrom]

7. one would like to think so...nt

[MrScorpio]

8. Militaries have slain the innocent since time immemorial

War itself is an abomination

[NCTraveler]

12. Highly inflamatory headline by that blogger.

You can read the article being referenced here.

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2012/12/marine-taliban-kids-120312w

[KoKo]

13. And...the Military Times is "fair and balanced?" Since when?

You even had to post this in GD just to make sure people saw the propaganda to counter this headline.

[NCTraveler]

14. Not sure when I said it was balanced. It's not. But it is where the bloggers blog leads to.

People often aren't willing to follow all the way through as long as they like what they read.

[morningfog]

17. If you feel the Nation article is inaccurate, cite the inaccuracies.

[morningfog]

16. The article in the OP does not contradict the military times article.

THe headline in the OP is accurate. If you find it inflammatory or offensive, your problem is with the military, not the Nation or Robert Dreyfuss.

[woo me with science]

18. When the US government is purposely aiming bombs at children,

we had better hope, desperately, that Americans are still capable of being inflamed.

[woo me with science]

19. Kick. "ages 8 to 12"

Malia and Sasha were about those ages when Obama took office.

[KoKo]

20. I wonder if he isn't haunted by that..and even his own daughters since

even though they are protected by their private school (as all President's children need to be) that they don't hear anything about this and wonder about it.

It's got to be causing some family discussion as those of us who had or had kids know how hard it is to insulate them from the "outer world" really is in these days and times.

I wonder how he deals?

[JaneyVee]

21. There isn't a single "evil do-er" on this planet worth the life of an innocent child.

Especially in the War on Terror, haven't we decimated them to the point we're basically just fighting youth street gangs? Time to go.

[woo me with science]

22. Kick

[woo me with science]

23. Kick. Ignoring it does not make it go away.