Now a UN investigation has made a finding about the bombing incident in Shindand, Herat:
Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Afghanistan, said local officials and residents in the western province of Herat corroborated reports that 60 children and 30 adults had been killed in an Aug. 21 military operation led by U.S. Special Operations forces and the Afghan army.
In a statement, Eide called the incident a “matter of grave concern to the United Nations” and said he had “repeatedly made clear that the safety and welfare of civilians must be considered above all else during the planning and conduct of all military operations.”
U.S. forces in Afghanistan have increased their reliance on air power since last year, causing a corresponding increase in civilian deaths. The Herat assault appears to have caused the largest civilian loss of life attributed to U.S. forces since the war began in late 2001.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said military commanders in Afghanistan continued to believe that the attack in Herat “was a legitimate strike on a Taliban target.”
Whitman promised a detailed investigation. “This has a lot of people’s interest, and my sense is they want to be thorough and complete. We’re doing it as expeditiously as we can.”
I’m honestly curious how it is that news agencies and IGOs can send in local investigators within a couple of days, while, despite nearly a week of complaints of 60 children killed in the strike the U.S. military has yet to even organize an investigation (it used to claim it had, see below).
Meanwhile, despite linking to the multiple news stories about this possible atrocity today way down in six-word “news notes,” Small Wars Journal has yet to retract its August 24 news post, which notes at length the U.S. military’s claim to have killed 30 militants, as well as First Lieutenant Nathan Perry’s assertion that troops had searched the bombed compound to confirm the casualties.
So if 1LT Perry was saying August 24 that they had confirmed 30 dead militants, yet Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman is “promising a detailed investigation” about the incident, what is really going on here? Considering SWJ’s lengthy quotation of sources on August 24 detailing the military’s denials about civilian casualties, they owe their readers the courtesy of noting that now every other agency on the ground in Herat believes that 90 civilians died, and 60 of those were children. If the SWJ editors see anything factually wrong with the several days now of reporting coming out about that incident, they haven’t said so.
Which makes me wonder: what is so dangerous about admitting you’re wrong?
Previously:
A Problem More Serious Than Bias
Protesting Civilians’ Possible Death
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I think it’s time that the US government and military paused for long enough to reflect on the impact that this behaviour has on their legitimacy. In that other theatre of the the “war on terror”, Somalia, when Islamist group Al-Shabaab accidentally kills a civilian, a meeting is held where the group apologies to the victim’s family and community, and offers compensation. By contrast, the US military cannot even be bothered to arrange an investigation!
Accidental deaths occur in wars; it’s how you respond to them that matters. And so Al-Shabaab has legitimacy in the eyes of Somali people. I seriously doubt that the US has the same degree of legitimacy in Afghanistan, or in Somalia for that matter.
I’m a new reader. Thanks for addressing this matter here.
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