Afghanistan: Seeds Of Our Own Destruction

In interviews shortly after he took command in June, General McChrystal specifically singled out the misuse of air power as a threat to the success of the international effort in Afghanistan, due to the tactic’s inability to discriminate between civilian and fighter. “Air power contains the seeds of our own destruction if we do not use it responsibly,” General McChrystal told a group of his senior officers during a video conference. “We can lose this fight.” – via NYT

The emotion of the German soldier speaks volumes.

After paying for the Granai screw-up in May, this latest NATO/U.S. airstrike to go bad was called in by German forces responsible for the mostly quiet Kunduz area in the Afghan north. Might this drive the German’s out?

from NYT slide show: NATO Airstrike Kills Dozens

(image: Anja Niedringhaus/Associated Press. caption. Afghan officials said the strike had killed insurgents as well as civilians who had surrounded the trucks and were siphoning fuel when the bombs struck. There were differing accounts of how many civilians were killed. A German ISAF soldier talked on a field telephone after inspecting the site.)

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Michael Shaw
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