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2019-09-20 Afghanistan
U.S. drone strike kills 30 pine nut farm workers in Afghanistan
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Posted by  Herb McCoy 2019-09-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [336111 views ]  Top
 File under: Islamic State 

#1 I recall a lot of German and Japanese civilians (and French) died in air attacks circa 1943-5. Both the Germans and Japanese have been rather shy of war since then. Just saying.
Posted by Procopius2k 2019-09-20 08:13||   2019-09-20 08:13|| Front Page Top

#2 Of course, Herb posted this bullshit
Posted by Frank G 2019-09-20 08:54||   2019-09-20 08:54|| Front Page Top

#3 One does wonder how the war casualty numbers compare to normal Afghan-on-Afghan violence. These are a people known for shooting up everyone in the vicinity because someone looked at them the wrong way, after all. Not to mention tribal warfare; multi-generational feuds; kidnapping raids; warlords enforcing their lordship; gangsters justifying their targets paying for protection; takfiris enforcing religious compliance on the Hazeras, Buddhists (not that there are many of the latter left, poor things), and insufficiently pious Muslim neighbours; and various jihadi groups, mostly foreign, fighting against the local authorities and everyone else.
Posted by trailing wife 2019-09-20 11:12||   2019-09-20 11:12|| Front Page Top

#4 Assuming there really were innocent civilians killed in a US drone strike, that would be a tragedy but it has happened before.

Compare Operation Freedom's Sentinel with previous conflicts, even with Operation Enduring Freedom. We have become better at reducing collateral damage but we are not close to reaching zero. No honest person should expect that we will reach it soon.

Interestingly, even some of the terrorist groups have been trying to reduce collateral damage (e.g., Hezbollah, AlQ) because of the bad feelings in the general population after such damage. On the other hand, Syrian Assad forces and ISIS don't seem worried about this.
Posted by lord garth 2019-09-20 11:31||   2019-09-20 11:31|| Front Page Top

#5 Pine nuts? Oh, dear - what am I gonna do to make my pesto now?
Posted by Raj 2019-09-20 11:34||   2019-09-20 11:34|| Front Page Top

#6 "It's Rooters, Jim."
Posted by Mullah Richard 2019-09-20 11:48||   2019-09-20 11:48|| Front Page Top

#7 I don't think Ashraf Ghani cares a damn, why should you ?
Posted by Dron66046 2019-09-20 12:36||   2019-09-20 12:36|| Front Page Top

#8 The intel that a number of IS jihadis are using the location came directly from the Afghan NDS.

Maybe someone in the intelligence bureaucracy wants to dissuade locals from growing anything except 'the good stuff'. Who's to say the Af administration didn't engineer the incident ?
Posted by Dron66046 2019-09-20 12:43||   2019-09-20 12:43|| Front Page Top

#9 "We are aware of allegations of the death of non-combatants and are working with local officials to determine the facts to ensure this is not a ploy to deflect attention from the civilians murdered by the Taliban at a hospital in Zabul earlier today," he added.

100% pure Whataboutism. We murdered civilians, so let's point to the enemy doing the same. After all, we are but two sides of the same coin, amirite Mr. Spokesman?
Posted by Herb McCoy 2019-09-20 21:36||   2019-09-20 21:36|| Front Page Top

#10 And how many of those civilian casualties were/are caused by the Taliban?
Posted by bbrewer126 2019-09-20 22:27||   2019-09-20 22:27|| Front Page Top

#11 Most, if not by cowardly hiding among civilians, the masquerading as civilians
Posted by Frank G 2019-09-20 22:31||   2019-09-20 22:31|| Front Page Top

#12 From a dope-smoking pinus chilgoza
On Afghan TV, a disclosure:
"By Allah, feels good!
I've got springier wood!
It's halal and it helps your composure!"
Posted by Anginetle Elmoluter9778 2019-09-20 23:01||   2019-09-20 23:01|| Front Page Top

23:42 Dron66046
23:01 ruprecht
23:01 Anginetle Elmoluter9778
22:57 ruprecht
22:31 Frank G
22:30 Frank G
22:29 Frank G
22:27 bbrewer126
22:07 SteveS
21:53 Lex
21:46 Herb McCoy
21:41 Herb McCoy
21:38 Herb McCoy
21:36 Herb McCoy
21:20 Clyde Dribble8052
21:02 Skidmark
20:59 Skidmark
20:24 Canuckistan sniper
20:02 Frank G
19:25 SteveS
19:01 Bobby
18:53 Bobby
18:16 magpie
18:12 Clyde Dribble8052









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