Nato admits that deaths of 8 boys were a mistake

[bemildred]

Source: Times.UK

A night-time raid in eastern Afghanistan in which eight schoolboys from one family were killed was carried out on the basis of faulty intelligence and should never have been authorised, a Times investigation has found.

Ten children and teenagers died when troops stormed a remote mountain compound near the border with Pakistan in December.

At the time, Nato claimed that the assault force was targeting a “known insurgent group responsible for a series of violent attacks”. Officials said that the victims were involved in making and smuggling improvised explosive devices. But Western sources close to the case now agree that the victims were all aged 12 to 18 and were not involved in insurgent activity.

Nato sources say that the raid should never have been authorised. “Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack,” an official in Kabul told The Times. “We don’t now believe that we busted a major ring.”

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7040166.ece

[aquart]

1. OUT. NOW.

[LakeSamish706]

2. "A mistake"... That ought to sit well with the family! How about we stop these wars!

Then there will be no mistakes..... What the hell is it with deaths anyway that the war mongers don't understand is wrong?

Fuck you Obama and your fucked up Administration..... I donated and campaigned for you and now am stuck with this shit! You have so let me down that I can't express my disappointment.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[daleo]

4. No big surprise to me

There sure were a lot of people on this board claiming that special forces just couldn't make a mistake like this, at the time these reports were first circulating, though.

[tekisui]

5. Yeah. Don't expect a mea culpa from those war apologists.

[Prometheus Bound]

16. Here's a few of those threads.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7380923#7389123

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7381479#7382168

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7377593

[jgraz]

6. File under "Ya Think?"

:banghead:

[winyanstaz]

7. This wont bring those dead kids back to life....

Bring our troops home NOW! END this WAR!

[scentopine]

8. This is another disgrace - we are drowning in the blood of

our misadventures in two disgusting wars that simply fuel more demand for the very things our leaders claim they are defeating.

Where is the outrage from the "pro-life" republicans and democrats?

[0rganism]

9. mistake? No, not even close - try "avoidable tragedy", or "massacre" maybe?

A mistake? That's more like, "Gee, I'm sorry, I mistook your bonnet for a hat," or, "It certainly was a mistake to buy all those betamax tapes."

We ought to use other words for the large-scale killing of innocents.

[gratuitous]

10. Here's some, uhhhh, three 2 for 1 coupons at Red Robin

We square, Afghanistan?

Well, nothing bad will come out of this. Unless the Afghanis are a bunch of sore loser spoilsports. In which case we were perfectly justified in blowing eight of their kids to kingdom come pre-emptively.

[Rapier09]

12. Just about

The way we "won" in Iraq was to minimize contact with the locals.Bit by bit,along with hiring local irregulars and giving the Iraqi army a reason to fight-we managed to save face.


What they're doing in Afghanistan isn't a repeat of 2008,it is a repeat of what happened in Iraq in 2003.We are treating these people as if we can do as we want with them.

It is going to make for some horrible results.

[sce56]

11. Mistake my A$$ Am I wrong or is this not the one that reported these KIDS were taken and EXECUTED!

with there hands tie wrapped behind them!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article6971638.ece

American-led troops were accused yesterday of dragging innocent children from their beds and shooting them during a night raid that left ten people dead.

Afghan government investigators said that eight schoolchildren were killed, all but one of them from the same family. Locals said that some victims were handcuffed before being killed.

Western military sources said that the dead were all part of an Afghan terrorist cell responsible for manufacturing improvised explosive devices (IEDs), which have claimed the lives of countless soldiers and civilians. “This was a joint operation that was conducted against an IED cell that Afghan and US officials had been developing information against for some time,” said a senior Nato insider. But he admitted that “the facts about what actually went down are in dispute”.
<snip>
“The delegation concluded that a unit of international forces descended from a plane Sunday night into Ghazi Khan village in Narang district of the eastern province of Kunar and took ten people from three homes, eight of them school students in grades six, nine and ten, one of them a guest, the rest from the same family, and shot them dead,” a statement on President Karzai’s website said.

Assadullah Wafa, who led the investigation, said that US soldiers flew to Kunar from Kabul, suggesting that they were part of a special forces unit.

Sure sounds like a war crime to me!

[dipsydoodle]

13. I assume seven may have been considered to be acceptable

but eight a complete fuck up. :sarcasm:

[Solly Mack]

14. shakes head

k/r

[Bonescrat]

15. Could they be a little more definitive?

"Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack..."

Um... Probably?

[ezmerelda39]

17. Just another OOOPS

Installing a Ready-Made-Government-in-a-Box after this major offensive will never win the hearts and minds of the residents with this kind of blunder but it may very well recruit a few more terrorists. OOOPS, sorry folks, it's just collateral damage and after all "Stuff happens," and besides we are prepared to pay you well for each of your children. How many like the idea of paying taxes to murder children, whether by accident or by design? Dead children are dead children either way.

[mikeytherat]

18. 10 were killed, but only eight were "mistakes?"

I guess the deaths of the other two were OK?

mikey_the_rat

[unhappycamper]

19. NATO my ass.

How about the United States of America?

[flyarm]

20. eight school boys..10 children killed ..there is no "do over" on killing children..they are just

DEAD.

Dead is dead.

8 children from one family..dead. Dead... as in Dead!

10 children had their lives snuffed out..dead..by Mistake???????

How do you tell parents..oppppppps..We killed your children ..by mistake..

and to HAVE DONE THIS and to say this...is an utter disgrace beyond words..

“Knowing what we know now, it would probably not have been a justifiable attack,” an official in Kabul told The Times. “We don’t now believe that we busted a major ring.”


Knowing what we know now?????????? after ten children were murdered???????? Because that is what this is ..it is cold blooded murder. There is no do over or exoneration of OPPPPPSSSS..we murdered 10 of your kids..your babies..your innocent little children.

What f'ing nerve to even attempt to say to parents .."KNOWING WHAT WE KNOW NOW"..we thought your children were a major ring..so a big fucking ooppps..

I AM SORRY ..BUT IF SOMEONE MURDERED MY CHILD.. I would hunt them down and I would build my own army ..and I would not stop until I could personally hold them accountable ..anyway I could.

And we wonder why these people hate ?

And we wonder why there is an AlQueada?

And we wonder why Taliban has so much power?

Just get a few of the parents who have seen their children "snuffed out and murdered " and I GUARANTEE they will eventually hunt down the murderers. I don't think anything could make you hate more than someone murdering your child. In cold blood ..and with the cover of another nations military.

Doesn't anyone clear this stuff anymore? Don't they make sure without.. a shadow of a doubt.. who they attack...who they kill....children for god sake...babies..some parents BABIES!

I don't blame these people for hating us...How could you blame them?

This makes me so sick to my stomach..my brain just can not comprehend this anymore..how many children do we have to kill before it is enough for the greedy fucks who want their wars for no godamn reason other than fucking greed.

I feel such shame ..

[Soylent Brice]

21. *sigh*

[ContraBass Black]

22. Okay, so presuming that the soldiers conducting the raid were following this false intelligence,

And stormed the compound. Inside, they found children and teenagers. That isn't necessarily indicative of anything, as young people can be warriors too, sometimes to great effect. Maybe they were dragged from their beds as the witnesses claim, maybe they managed to put up more resistance than that, as strangers with guns came rushing into their home.

Unless they sleep with rifles in their hands, why was it necessary to shoot all of them on the spot?

[Arctic Dave]

23. Yeah, eight more terr'ist dead!!!!

Tell me again why I am supposed to fawn all over the military? Fuck em.

[IndianaGreen]

24. Afghanistan is a mistake and NATO is another mistake!

NATO should have been dissolved at the end of the Cold War. The fact that NATO continues in perpetuity attest to its true nature: not an organization for self-defence of its members, but an agent of American imperialism and aggression.

[bemildred]

26. NATO is the mistake, right on. nt

[Romulox]

25. Mr. Obama--END THIS WAR. nt

[Flaneur]

27. I'm waiting for Pavulon to tell us we need more proof.