Worst Taliban Attack or Worst NATO Blunder?

The big news yesterday was the death of 10 French soldiers in Afghanistan. They called it the worst Taliban attack on NATO forces in three years.

But hold the presses…

AFP and al-Jazeera are reporting that the French army refuses to comment on a report in Le Monde that the 10 French soldiers actually were killed by a NATO airstrike responding to the initial attack by militants.

The soldiers told the newspaper they waited for four hours for back-up after being ambushed. But when NATO planes finally arrived they hit French troops after missing their target, the newspaper quoted the soldiers as saying. The report added that Afghan soldiers sent in as backup also mistakenly targeted the French soldiers.

A NATO official said on Wednesday: “I have nothing substantive to confirm or deny this particular suggestion. “We are aware of the media reports and therefore we have to look into it.” The official said the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) “would probably defer in the first instance to the French authorities,” in the investigation.

Junior Defense Minister Jean-Marie Bockel, asked to comment on Le Monde‘s report, said: “this is not the time for polemics, this is a day of compassion, of national unity around our soldiers.”

42 thoughts on “Worst Taliban Attack or Worst NATO Blunder?”

  1. “Junior Defense Minister Jean-Marie Bockel, asked to comment on Le Monde’s report, said: “this is not the time for polemics, this is a day of compassion, of national unity around our soldiers.”

    I didn’t know that the definition of “polemics” is “asking embarrassing questions about what really happened”. Or that “compassion” is “covering your ears and saying lalalalalalalala.”

    1. Compassion!does not extend to the Afghanis killed while sleeping in their mud houses,during wedings ,or funerals either!

  2. We need to find a way out of Afghanistan. Perhaps we should start negotiations. As odious as they are it wasn’t the Taliban that attacked America. The Bush response was all wrong. They waited a full month before beginning operations and they ran things from Stateside. They focused on “regime change” instead of getting Laden and co. who they let slip away at Tora Bora because they didn’t commit U.S. troops. Now we have a quagmire and with the wrong enemy.

    1. Have you ever heard the quote that truth can-be stranger than fiction… I’ve been telling America these following facts since 2006 but no-one seems really interested because their so-called free media hasn’t responded & given it their blessing or acknowledgement… Are you really right in being so-sure your media is still free America… Those magic bullets & mystical moon-landings damaged your third estate a whole lot more than most of you have ever realised… Anyway to find a way out of Afghanistan you must first honestly find out how you got there in the place… For the 100th time the I’m clearly telling you in simple plain English that the original Saudi-born genuine Afghany Muhahadeen who was rightly known as “OSAMA BIN-LADEN” at his birth (Peace be-upon his brave dead corpse) was quietly assassinated by your CIA on unnofficial Whitehouse orders in the mid-80’s… You can close your eyes & stick your fingers in your ears & repeat the rosary or whatever it is you do to avoid having to honestly think about what I’m telling you but still it remains 100% true that he was then literally replaced with a fully compromised & controlled Australian-born swarthy lookalike born as “PETER WILLIAM VANSTONE” sometime around 1953… This was a simple partially illiterate man who had been literally blackmailed into his cooperation with CIA in this after the original had refused to cooperate in the operation to build a fully controlled Muslim Terror group by CIA… “VANSTONE” was then blackmailed through his initially unwilling participation in a pedophile snuff-movie racket that CIA has long been running down in Australia known as “THE FAMILY CULT” which succeeded in filming him copulating with a boy who was then killed on film not long after & “VANSTONE” was pretty well set-up filmed & photographed specifically to gain his cooperation… It was CIA that has been secretly running this in Australia & in many other countries under an extremely black operation that was totally created & controlled by them acting under orders of a specific & easily identifiable (****ists) group of ‘WW2-FINANCIERS’ who had gained control of CIA themselves using the same methods ever since the late 50’s or very early-60’s… Can you understand what I’m saying here or is there too much detail to confuse you…? (sic) The Saudi-man “BIN-LADEN” has been dead since the mid-80’s & after “VANSTONE” was forced to fake his own death with an early morning heart attack then being buried in a closed coffin… Shortly after he-was given intense US Special Forces Aranic studies & some mild plastic surgery work to broaden his nose a little & then apart from carrying his mother’s kidney in his stomach & having false teeth & being two inches taller than the deceased original he-was the perfect lookalike & CIA then used money skill & further blackmail & connections in Middle East businesses & media to create an entirely new circle of radical friends & business associates for him… None of his old Mujahadeen from the Afghanistan war would have anything to do with him… You know what that means don’t you America… I-really do understand your fear & apprehension here… This means that CIA has been running “AL-QUEADA” all-along since day one & is a little like finding out your father has been sleeping with the milkman… It’s just unheard of (You think) & apart from what went down in the “OSS” & was later surpressed such negligent criminality taking the systems of governance & using them for unelected people & agendas has never been heard of before… Again apart from what went down behind the scenes in the precursor “OSS” group that set the tone in the new CIA & gained the upper hand through similar techniques to what I’ve just detailed including snuff-movie videos involving sex with children who were then murdered on film & also plain Philby-style homosexuality too as-well… Do you have any of the revolutionary courage left America or is it all Hollywood hype… Has the battle for freedom & honesty & true public accountability been lost already because you need a testicle transplant…? This “FAMILY CULT” black-op your CIA operated down here in Australia raped a large amount of children & the number eventually killed on film to blackmail politicians into submission down here is well into the triple figures… I-wish I-was exagerating because some of them were mine… Please get your souls back before this “AL-QUEADA” hype treasonously run by CIA is used to create “WW3” & place a small group of satanically insane dinasours into power… Once again the blackmailed & controlled lookalike “VANSTONE” replaced “BIN-LADEN” in the mid-80’s… Have a nice day…

  3. NATO was obsolete with the fall of the Soviet Union and of the Communists’ political monopoly in Russia.

    Like the old March of Dimes, which switched diseases when polio was cured, NATO decided to commit suicide in Yugoslavia. The corpse is blundering around Afghanistan trying to find 1842.

    It is silly to ask a Czech to explain his thinking. It’s easier to read The Fateful Adventures of Good Soldier Schweik.

    The Poles, on the other hand, must have got a healthy serving of sweetener to allow in the missile shield.

    They were initially offered $2 million. They countered with $2 billion.

    Whatever they finally got, one wonders if they demanded their US subsidy in Euros?

    One also wonders whether they will ever collect a tenth of what they were promised.

    1. It’s not the money promised Poland that we need worry about. Should Poland tweak the Bear’s nose and get clawed, the US and most of Europe will be suckered into fulfilling a promise to defend a fellow NATO member. The world will then, for the 3rd time in a century, get embroiled in a War To End All Wars.

  4. Contrary to popular consensus, bush’s holy war on Afghanistan is
    NOT a good war! Before bush’s war, the Taliban offered ObL to bush
    if bush would just follow standard extradition procedures and show
    the incriminating evidence against ObL. Instead Bush’s ultimatum,
    turn him over right now without ocnditions or we start bombing.
    I even recall watching Nightline’s Ted Koppel interviewing the
    Taliban Foreign Minister a few weeks b4 bush started his holy
    war. Koppel asked, will you turn ObL over to the US?
    The FM answered, yes we are. We just ask that you show us the
    evidence you have and we are willing if the evidence so warrants.
    Koppel’s probes no deeper but distainfully changes the subject by
    asking, what do you think the weather will be like when we start
    bombing you? I think bush never ever really wanted to
    apprehend ObL, much preferring the pretext for war…
    even now…

    1. True, Yankee Pasha.
      According to the FBI, there isn’t enough evidence to date to indict bin Laden for the 9/11 attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon other than the fingerpointing of various neocons and the media. Here’s the FBI’s current “Most Wanted” poster for Usama bin Laden. You will note that the only specific accusations against him are the two embassy bombings in Africa.
      http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/fugitives/laden.htm

  5. It is strange that the French do not know who killed their troops. Can’t they just ask the officer in charge?

  7. You believe these early reports from Anti War and others ? If there has ever been a war to be fought it is Afghanistan. There will be loss of life, and at times it will come from friendly fire. These battles have preserved your right of speech and your ability to comments as you have. Get some brothers, Semper Fi.

    1. You are not serious are you?

      Killing Taliban protects free speech? So by your reasoning, if we didn’t kill them there they would amass an invasion army and invade North America, and after defeating the combined armies of Canada, USA and Mexico they will deny us our freedom of speech. Guess I better stock up on ammo or ask my government to remove more of my freedoms in the meantime to protect me down the road.

    2. Your joking right? Right? How has fighting the Taliban preserved free speech? How? Switzerland has no troops in Afghanistan. They have free speech there don’t they?

    3. Brad,
      Are you a troll trying to get a rise out of us or are you just Semper Stupid? Afghanistan did not perpetrate 9-11. There has been insufficient evidence presented to declare anyone guilty of 9-11, for that matter. Do you have evidence that links the Afghanistan to 9-11? It would be nice if you could back up your fondness for killing third world people with a little logic such as to what the Afghans are actually guilty of other than owning land for which the imperialists have other needs for.
      Incidentally, my freedom of speech comes from the Almighty (and I don’t mean George W. Jackass).

    4. This is an incredibly naive comment, something that could only come from a Marine. This idiot thinks we’re fighting in Afghanistan to protect our free speech at a time when the US government is restricting our free speech! Hey, Brad, get a high school diploma and read more about the world before you prattle on with that Moron Corpse crap.

      1. Perhaps we shouldn’t be to hard on Brad. The most propagandized of all people in America are the men and women of the U.S. armed forces. They have to be. It is doubtful they could do the things they do without a complete brainwashing.

    5. As Oscar Wilde once said, “A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it”.

  8. Brad’s right. Whatever freedom we have left after the North Koreans, the North Vietnamese, the Grenadians, the Somalis et al. left us after coming to our shores and pillaging America will surely have to be given up to the Taliban. Have you seen how accurate they are with those Enfield .303s?

  9. Do not forget the wars in Korea,Vietnam,central America,Grenada,Panama,Iraq,and so on were to “increase!” and preseve free speach and freedom of Americans!.Americans’ freedom has a long reach indeed!Next the US has to fight the Martians on Mars to safeguard freedom and freespeach!

  10. We have to fight them over there instead of downtown Detroit. a lot of great comments here, just bring the troops home. This war is going on eight years with no end goal ever put forward that makes any sense.

  11. Junior Defense Minister Jean-Marie Bockel, asked to comment on Le Monde’s report, said: “this is not the time for polemics, this is a day of compassion, of national unity around our soldiers.”

    How well (and how quickly) France’s Sarkocrats have adopted the Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rove/Neocon playbook and its companion doublespeak!

    Monsieur Bockel, like his boss, apparently needs a history refresher. Someone obviously needs to whisper the words “Vietnam” and “Algeria” in his ear.

    1. Actually France lost more than just VietNam – it was all of IndoChina (as we said back in those days). For awhile, France matured, but now the stupid gene seems to have become dominant again. In America, the recessive stupid gene, has been so dominant for so long, it now breeds true – generation after generation of dummies.

      1. The last report one saw two thirds of the French electorate is against any involvement in Afghanistan.

        Apparently the NeoCons have learned to package their minority warmongering internationally.

  12. Hey everybody cheer up. Don’t you know our fearless chickenhawk leader George Bush thinks that fighting in Afghanistan is “romantic”. I’m sure those ten dead Frenchmen felt “romantic” as they were being killed huh? Let me see now, I could be enjoying summer in Paris, cafes, women, culture, or getting killed by people I don’t even know thousands of miles away in some god-forsaken valley in a corrupt third-world non-country. Now that’s “romantic” indeed.

  13. From a REAL former US Marine/Vietnam vet (me). The Afghan was is NOT needed by us. We should have made the deal with the Taliban when it was offered. By fighting there, as in Vietnam, we do NOT make America more free. We make America LESS free, just see what has happened here in these last 7+ years. Less freedoms for US, more wars for the rest of the world.
    As a former Marine/Vietnam vet, I totally despise these little jerks who “claim” some affiliation with the Corps. Then there are always the few odd nuts in every unit, maybe this Brad idiot is one of those. He certainly qualifies as an idiot to this old vet. Had he actually been in any real combat, I doubt he’d be so “pro war” today.
    War is the MOST pornographic thing we humans have ever devised. Period
    semper fi, from a REAL Marine

    1. Thank Charlie,

      They did not want to make a deal with the Taliban because of the followings:

      They did not have any evidence!

      They needed war to serve the military-industrial complex.

      The rites of passage for every American president is to have a war or two to prove himself ,call it self-esteem booster.

      American nationalistic ego.

  14. One further comment.
    Do NOT expect any change in our Afghan policy after Novembers’ election. Obama “thinks” the Afghan war is a “good war”. What an idiot he has turned out to be.

    1. Interior Ministry: US Airstrikes Kill 76 Afghan Civilians

      “Just one day after US airstrikes in Laghman province were reported to have killed at least 20 civilians, a much larger incident has occurred on the opposite side of the country in Herat Province.

      As with yesterday’s story, the initial US report claimed that 30 militants were killed, including an al-Qaeda commander. Though the Afghan Defense Ministry reported several homes were destroyed and that civilians were among the dead, US officials denied that there were any civilians killed.

      Shortly later, Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry released a statement regarding the incident. In it they announced that 76 people, all civilians, had actually been killed in the strike. Among those killed were seven men, 19 women, and 50 children under the age of 15. The Ministry expressed “profound regret” for the killings, which they described as accidental, and promised to dispatch a delegation to conduct a full investigation.”

      http://news.antiwar.com/2008/08/interior-ministry-us-airstrikes-kill-76-afghan-civilians/

      Talk about compassion!

    2. I said long ago that Obama was an establishment candidate. He, Clinton and Edwards were annointed as the only “viable” candidates by the MSM, which did its best to sabotage all other candidates and convince people who agreed with Kucinich or Gravel on the issues that a vote for either would be wasted. If people want real change they have to reject the establishment candidates in the primaries. The vast majority of grass-roots Democrats agree with Kucinich and Gravel on the issues, but were convinced by the media that they weren’t “viable.” If people had simply voted their conscience rather than the “lesser of 3 evils”, we’d have a real opportunity for change.

      1. They also sabotaged Ron Paul’s campaign, leaving us with “bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran” McCain.

    1. The story at the link above has since been updated extensively. A fuller quotation from Lavrov is available in a story by the Thaindian Times:

      http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/russia-has-no-plans-to-slam-door-on-nato-lavrov_10087107.html

      Lavrov as quoted: ”Russia, no less than NATO, relies on this mutual cooperation…NATO is much more in need of Russia’s support of its military actions in Afghanistan, where NATO’s fate appears to be in the balance….We are not going to slam the door on NATO….Everything depends on NATO priorities: i[f] the priority is for unconditional support of (Georgian President Mikh[a]il Saakashvili), then we won’t be to blame for the bankrupting of the alliance’s relations with Russia.”

      As chess games go, this is win-win for the Russian Federation

      The wry will recognize a sly undertone that “not slamming the door on NATO” supplying its forces in Afghanistan through Russian airspace may be quite as deleterious to NATO as cutting such flights off abruptly.

  16. To Jerry Sapezina,

    First I would like to compliment Eric Garis for a timely and effective post concerning the daily bombing of civilians in Afghanistan, (and also Pakistan).

    I would like to try and connect the killings in Pakistan and Afghanistan with the comments of Jerry Sapizena concerning Haiti and Cuba earlier this week on this blog site.

    I will attempt to do so by asking the following question. Do you(Mr. Sapienza) think the imperial destruction of both Haiti and Cuba by the United States for the last one hundred and fifty years is essentially any different than the current genocide we are practicing in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan?

    In addition to being racist some of your comments were outright falsehoods. Your comments were similar to the same language often used by Bush, Cheney, and the corporate media dogs when they attempt to justify our current actions in the Middle East.

    Before you spout off about subject you should at the very minimum know whether they are your elitist white male opinions or the truth. Unfortunately they are the same lies of Bush, Cheney, McCain, Obama, and Clinton. Who similar to you seem to believe that the impoverished people in many countries of the world should just bootstrap themselves back into the free market. But not until we have utterly destroyed them making such a feat impossible.

    Thomas Mauel, Menomonie, WI

  19. Funny how those plucky little nations – Croatians, Bosnians, Montenegrins and Kosovo Albanians – all deserved our support – material, military, economic and diplomatic – when they wanted to break away from Yugoslavia. But the Ossetians and Abkhazians must not break away from Georgia… Some principle!

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