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2006-05-24 Afghanistan

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Posted by Fred 2006-05-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 yes, he can. For one expressing concern is not condemnation. To look back at Israel, the IDF, when targeting terrorists, balances the number and value of the terrorists vs the likelihood and number of civilian casualties, and the availability and danger of alternate ways of getting the terrs (vs aerial bombing) and issues of timing. Hamid may just want to check that such balancing is being done appropriately by coalition forces in Afghanistan. Its his country after all, and he must answer to its voters, and must ensure that the campaign against the terrorists doesnt weaken support for the new regime.

Posted by liberalhawk 2006-05-24 09:20|| 2006-05-24 09:20|| Front Page Top

#2 It is nice that Prez Karzai accused the Taliban of using human shields.

This is a first, or nearly a first. In the I/P conflict, neither Abbas nor any of the other so-called moderates nor the Human Rights NGOs nor the UN have made a similar pronouncement.

Maybe I'm being too semantic but I see this acknowledgement of the human shields crime as a big deal.

Posted by mhw 2006-05-24 09:44|| 2006-05-24 09:44|| Front Page Top

#3 Some details left out in Press accounts:
StrategyPage May 21, 2006: Coalition forces found that about a hundred Taliban gunmen were staying at a religious school near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan. Smart bombs hit the school in the middle of the night, but several dozen of the Taliban fled to nearby homes. As Afghan and Coalition forces closed in, the surviving Taliban fired back from nearby homes. So smart bombs were used on the homes as well, which killed about 16 civilians and wounded another twenty. Over 80 Taliban were killed, with no Afghan army or Coalition dead. The Taliban promptly spun their use of civilian homes, as human shields, as a Coalition atrocity.

Also, sounds like the bombs used on the madrassa were not big enough or could have used programmable delay fuses.

Posted by ed 2006-05-24 10:00|| 2006-05-24 10:00|| Front Page Top

#4 It is really starting to look like the spring offensive the Taliban have professed is becomming a reality. What the Taliban left out was their offensive was not against us, but in flooding allah with fools looking for virgins.

Posted by 49 Pan">49 Pan 2006-05-24 14:52|| 2006-05-24 14:52|| Front Page Top

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