US Military Claims Brought to You by Oliver North

by anderson

Tensions have been on the boil since the August 22 bombing of the Afghan village of Azizabad. Immediate accounts were divergent, with locals and the Afghan government claiming that 76 civilians -- later bumped to 90 civilians -- were killed, while the US military held fast to their usual line that Taliban militants had been the only casualties. Nothing seemed to back up the military's position, as a subsequent UN investigation corroborated the large number of civilians deaths, while President Karzai fired two top Army commanders over the incident. At that point, the US military began to accede to findings that some civilians had died but still maintained that most of the dead were armed insurgents.

US brass held fast, even accusing the local population of spreading "Taliban propaganda." A more clueless and ill-conceived pronouncement could not have been forthcoming; a classic lose-lose proposition. If the locals are, in fact, doing that, then the hearts and minds battle is lost. If the locals are not doing that, yet are accused of it by the US military, clearly the military feels that the hearts and minds battle is lost as well. Either condition is indicative that, indeed, hearts and minds of the Afghan population have been lost. And such a statement by any US military officer is an open admission of such. More relevant than this, though, is the fact that the US military, continuing to defy their own counterinsurgency manual, keep blowing up Afghan civilians at an alarming rate. And that will definitely lose the hearts and minds battle that is key in any counterinsurgency operation.

As was entirely expected, the Afghan locals are proving to be the truth tellers in this sad tale, as video hits the internet showing scores of bodies -- and many very small ones -- and Afghans say that they will exhume the bodies in order to prove the large civilian body count.

"We are ready to dig out every grave to show the Americans that civilians, including women and children, were killed in the air strikes."

As adamantly as the US military held to their version of events, that position is now faltering, as officials have agreed to "re-investigation" the findings, which will likely call into question the corroboration of Taliban deaths. That corroboration was provided by someone described by The Times as an "independent journalist," none other than "Fox News correspondent," Oliver North.

The US military said that its findings were corroborated by an independent journalist embedded with the US force. He was named as the Fox News correspondent Oliver North, who came to prominence in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair, when he was an army colonel.

It is entirely unclear just what North did to "corroborate" US military claims of Taliban deaths, but his efforts to bolster the military stance appear about to go down in the same flames that killed 90 Afghan civilians.

While doubtful, perhaps the US military should rethink their reliance on the fantastical stories of a known bullshit artist and pathological liar, someone who by all rights ought to be in prison.

Comments

[Greg]

glad to see someone carry this one.

[Terrible]

"came to prominence in the 1980s Iran-Contra affair"??

shouldn't that be "infamy"?

[EMF]

The same guy I watched on trial in the 80's under Ronald Ray Gun>? LOL... The US is a complete propaganda joke bringing a burning ember on the American head. Please buy a fkn clue 'US Empire'.

[ruthie]

where is Ollie now?