US Kills Five Afghan Cucumber Farmers in Air Strike

[earth_as_one]

Allied troops are doing a better job at avoiding civilian casualties than the Taliban and their allies. Both sides claim they are trying to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. Despite propaganda by both sides, the rate of civilian casualties continues to accelerate as the fighting intensifies...

In Afghanistan, Taliban kills more civilians than US
According to a new UN report, the number of civilians killed by both sides in the conflict has risen nearly 50 percent since 2007.
By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

July 31, 2009 edition

New Delhi - Civilian deaths in the Afghanistan conflict surged 24 percent in the first half of 2009, according to a new report from the United Nations. Anger over the misuse of force has become a top issue among Afghans, prompting leaders on both sides recently to issue directives to their fighters to minimize civilian casualties.

The UN report is a bad news, good news document for the US and its Afghan allies. The 21-page report (PDF), issued July 31, found that insurgents killed almost twice as many civilians in the first six months of the year as the coalition did (595 deaths against 309). The UN said it was a "significant shift" from the first half of 2007, when insurgent groups killed 298 civilians and US and allied forces killed 265. In the first half of 2008 the split was 495 to 276.

Nevertheless, the absolute number of civilians killed by both sides continued to rise.

The new commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, issued a tactical directive earlier this month to curb the use of air strikes to "very limited" scenarios. And a new Taliban "code of conduct" manual purportedly from Mullah Omar tells insurgents to take "the utmost effort" to avoid civilian casualties....

In Afghanistan, Taliban kills more civilians than US | csmonitor.com

New Taliban code: Don't kill civilians, don't take ransom
The 60-page code of conduct, issued in the runup to Aug. 20 elections, urges fewer suicide bombings....

New Taliban code: Don't kill civilians, don't take ransom | csmonitor.com

 

[ironsides]

Nonsense!

Canada has soldiers in Afghanistan because we were pressured by the U.S. to have them there. There is no war to win in Afghanistan, no ground to capture, Our soldiers just have to stay alert to keep from being blown up like about a hundred and ten of their mates already have. The war on terror is a joke. TWOT killed more people than 9/11 in the first few days. If Aghanis are being shot by Canadians it is purely self defense. How do you tell an Afghani from a Taliban? The Afghani is dead. If he isn't dead, he could still be a Taliban.

First Canada offered to come and help us in Afghanistan under U.N. command, and of course we welcomed the help.

There is only one way to tell the difference, kill them all and let God sort them out. Of course your right there is no way to tell them apart unless they are shooting at you, or you see a group of men meeting in someone's home that pays investigating. The intelligence we are using now is the people themselves pointing out the Taliban to us, telling us where they hang out. We can only do so much to avoid harming civilians and with few exceptions we are.

 

[EagleSmack]

All three examples you gave indicate they were `in danger` by approaching vehicles. I`ll say it again...get our people out of there. Stop kissing American ass.
We have no reason to be over there.
American troops, on the other hand, get their jollies (and a sense of courage they lack) by shooting/bombing what ever moves on the ground, from the air..be it manned (lol..ok not an accurate term for the cowards) or, un-occupied drones, more their preferred way of killing.

Sick, yellow-bellied fuks they be.

HEE HEE

Well well...someone is being VERY HYPOCRITICAL here.

Truth hurts doesn't it.

 

[EagleSmack]

Eagle, I think you misunderstand.

Two examples in here are to completely inaccurate targets. add your one correct target, and you get a one in three accuracy rate. Is that acceptable? Is that something that should make our armed forces proud of their job?

"Well, we bombed cucumber farmers, and sleeping children, but eventually we got one right"

Throwing one example of 'we got our man' in to the midst of such idiocy as bombing cucumber farmers... it's a weak show from you imo.

"we get it right eventually"

You are also taking the story as fact. Of course they are going to say they were farmers. Do you think they are going to say they were loading explosives?

 

[petros]

You are also taking the story as fact. Of course they are going to say they were farmers. Do you think they are going to say they were loading explosives?

Yeah I saw Corsican Brothers and their "Pommes de Terre" too but then I turned off my TV and reality came into the world.

 

[karrie]

You are also taking the story as fact. Of course they are going to say they were farmers. Do you think they are going to say they were loading explosives?

Do you think Nato's going to admit it wasn't?

 

[petros]

Wer mussen die cucumber aus rotten!

 

[EagleSmack]

Do you think Nato's going to admit it wasn't?

They have before.

 

[ironsides]

Some say tomato, some say cucumbers, we will never really know. Would you believe a Nato statement saying it was explosives? I would do just what they did, say nothing.

 

[#juan]

The soldiers accept that risk and choose to go there...those kids, those civilians, didn't choose to sign up to be there. Comparing and weighing out the two should NEVER occur.

Yeah.....That's what we like to say when our young soldiers are killed. Do we think that our soldiers don't value their lives as much as others? Do the families of soldiers value their sons and daughters less than others?

Politicians are responsible for wars..

 

[L Gilbert]

No, you should never compare the two, those soldiers are the best Canada had to give, yet they are sent to war with substandard equipment. (mostly the same argument can be said about the U.S.) Be proud of them all. Did those farmers point out where those roadside bombs were. I don't think so. Ever consider asking yourself why farmers in a war zone were doing loading cucumbers on a truck at night. We are now asking the best in the world for help in Afghanistan, the Vietnamese. My how times have changed, beautiful country Vietnam. Yes, war is wrong, but it happens and someone has to step up to the challenge.

Pretty much. I think some good can come of it. I'm not saying that Afghans have to become clones of North Americans, but they could learn what some of the good stuff in life is. Stuff like education, healthcare, etc. We load fruit at night so we can get a good start in the morning to take it to market. I would imagine farmers in any part of the world do that.

 

[L Gilbert]

You are also taking the story as fact. Of course they are going to say they were farmers. Do you think they are going to say they were loading explosives?

If it's green, is tubular in shape, has a stem on it, peels, and tastes like a cuke, then it's probabl6y a cuke. If it tastes like metal or chemicals, it probably isn't a cuke.

 

[L Gilbert]

Yeah.....That's what we like to say when our young soldiers are killed. Do we think that our soldiers don't value their lives as much as others? Do the families of soldiers value their sons and daughters less than others?

No, but they should know what they get themselves into.

Politicians are responsible for wars..

Quite right.

 

[#juan]

Some say tomato, some say cucumbers, we will never really know. Would you believe a Nato statement saying it was explosives? I would do just what they did, say nothing.

Is this "newspeak? The fact remains that Afghan police reported that five farmers were killed while they were loading cucumbers into a taxi. The cucumbers were there. No munitions were found. No. I would not believe a NATO statement.

 

[ironsides]

Cannot believe it, we almost agree. Not a bad days work.

 

[petros]

It's is obvious the pilot who dropped the bomb wasn't a farm boy.

Where was the Afghan Bil Cosby to tell the kids to "get away from that RPG tree"?

 

[ironsides]

Lets just hope these new rules work.
"The U.S. and its allies say protecting Afghans is now the highest priority, and the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan imposed rules last month restricting airstrikes. The Taliban released a code of conduct pledging to limit attacks on civilians and curb suicide bombings."

 

[karrie]

Yeah.....That's what we like to say when our young soldiers are killed. Do we think that our soldiers don't value their lives as much as others? Do the families of soldiers value their sons and daughters less than others?

I know for damn sure they value their lives.... but saying that it's okay to blow up civilians so long as it saves our boys' lives? When WE have chosen to go there, not the other way around? That doesn't fly with me.

 

[karrie]

If it tastes like metal or chemicals, it probably isn't a cuke.

If you bought it in a NA supermarket it might still be a cuke.

 

[petros]

Lets just hope these new rules work.
"The U.S. and its allies say protecting Afghans is now the highest priority, and the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan imposed rules last month restricting airstrikes. The Taliban released a code of conduct pledging to limit attacks on civilians and curb suicide bombings."

So the Taliban are now negotiating instead of fighting to the death and slaughtering innocent civilans and all that other malarky?

Well ain't that one dilly of an almost pickle to mix messages like that.