My Take | US military licensed to kill innocents
- A minor mishap in the grand tragedy of Afghanistan, the Pentagon finds no misconduct or negligence in a botched drone strike that killed seven children and three adult relatives as its forces withdrew from Kabul. A lesser misdeed from another country would have been cause for US sanctions
For weeks, Zemerai Ahmadi and members of his family who were torn to shreds in a drone strike were branded terrorists during the last days of the United States’ disastrous military withdrawal from Kabul. Only a news expose forced the Pentagon to launch an “independent” investigation into the killings of Ahmadi, 37, a long-time employee of an American humanitarian group and nine family members, including seven children.
Now, having completed the probe conducted by the US military on its own operations, it’s been concluded that there was no misconduct or negligence.
Commenting, Air Force Lieutenant General Sami Said said: “I found that given the information they had and the analysis that they did – I understand they reached the wrong conclusion, but ... was it reasonable to conclude what they concluded based on what they had? It was not unreasonable. It just turned out to be incorrect.”
Move on please, nothing more to see here.
A minor mishap in the grand tragedy of Afghanistan, the botched attack on August 29 and the subsequent US damage control nevertheless offers a sad commentary on Washington’s militarised foreign policy such as its “war on terror” and its frequent fatal consequences for innocent civilians in countries across the globe.