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US Bombs Hit Doctors Without Borders Hospital
Prune writes: According to multiple news sources, U.S. airstrikes partially destroyed a Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Afghanistan, killing at least nine staff members and at least 50 overall, including patients, and this after giving its coordinates to U.S. forces multiple times. I'm especially saddened to report this given I had become one of the supporters of this charity after recommendations from Slashdot members in a discussion about choosing charities to donate to a while back.
All the thugs in the US mercenary corps are nothing but hitmen...
not after having been made aware of their coordinates and location several times. Someone ordered this strike, believing there were "terrorists" treated at that facility, knowing very well it was a hospital and what the result would be, and giving no damn about it because they can get away with it. This is worse than all the other killings commited by U.S forces abroad, and people and governments must take a stand, or killings and murders like these will just continue.
Airstrikes on population centres cause civilian casualties you say? The cost of sending in soldiers instead is too high, justifying the cost of the collateral damage you say? But not when Assad or Putin does it you say?
""The bombing continued for more than 30 minutes after American and Afghan military officials in Kabul and Washington were first informed,” the organization said in a statement."
I guess the difference is the level competence and precision.
Bombs without borders got the date and time mixed up and there was a scheduling conflict.
What do liberals have to do with this, even remotely?
Arresting people occasionally puts innocents in jail.
It's impossible to completely avoid civilian casualties in war unless you conduct absolutely no military operations whatsoever. The subtext of this is, of course, that the US should have avoided this, but how? Never go to war? That's obviously impractical.
Okay, so how about only going to war when you have a really good reason? If that's your plan, and you do approve of war as long as there is a really good reason, then (since some civilian casualties are inevitable) you've just said that you're okay with civilian casualties as long as the war is for a really good reason. Needless to say, you never see anti-war people saying this.
Being more careful in war? Well, you can be more careful, but nobody's perfect; there will always be *some* civilian casualties. So you're not really objecting to civilian casualties; you just think there are too many, but fewer but still some is okay. I've never seen anti-war people saying that either.
So what exactly should be done, other than never going to war, ever?
I've got an old Amiga space sim I would like to donate to them
It was the sequel to Elite
We were aiming at the Chinese embassy.
Have gnu, will travel.
...
A Brief History of US Imperialism and State Violence in Colombia
From the 1960s to the late 2000s, the United States government has played a decisive role in how the Colombian state has carried out its brutal war against left-wing dissidents and Colombian civil society.
Recent history in Colombia reads like something out of a dystopian horror novel.
A recently released report from Human Rights Watch describes how between 2002 and 2008, the Colombian military kidnapped and murdered “hundreds, possibly thousands of civilians”, typically “rural peasants, drug addicts, the homeless, and petty criminals”, and dressed them up as rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Union leaders regularly targeted for assassination. making Colombia consistently top the charts of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a labor organizer. Recently released documents have shown how Chiquita Brands International, a major US banana company, maintained close ties with right-wing death squads
who threatened, kidnapped, tortured, and killed labor organizers in the area who spoke out against low wages and poor working conditions. Agricultural industries, like the palm oil sector, appear to have grown in the last decade through a repeated pattern where paramilitary groups forcibly displace peasants from promising agricultural lands and then sell those lands to multinationals.
As of 2014, Colombia had at least 5.7 million internally displaced people (~11% of the total population); only Syria had a higher number of displaced people.
The article contains possibly-conflicting claims as to whether the Taliban was operating out of the hospital and, just as importantly, whether those that destroyed the hospital believed it was so.
From the article:
Sultan Arab, a local police commander in Kunduz, said the hospital came under an airstrike, âoebecause the Taliban had shifted their command center inside the hospital.â
In a statement, the Taliban denied any of its fighters were at the hospital at the time of the airstrike.
A Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman declined to comment on the allegations, but noted the organization âoetreats every patient irrespective of whether they are military or civilian.â In 1999, the organization was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize for its work.
Bottom line - this looks like it could be a tragic case of someone deciding to take out a hospital based on false information that it was being used by the enemy.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
I'd like to think that all this was a mistake of ginormous proportions.
Reality is, the military knew the coordinates but ordered the strike anyway.
Makes me want to puke.
These civilians gave their life to try to make the world a better place and got bombed on purpose...
Gods. Doctors Without Borders is one of the best charities on the planet, and gives hope that humans can actually be civilized.
Let's just blame Russia !
The Canadians learned the lesson at Tarnak Farm: Get the hell out of ANY country that is suffering US airforce attacks.
Sometimes the "writing on the wall" is blood spatter...
It's just another case of people in one country trying to make friends with people in another country on the other side of the planet - going very well as it seems.
Here is a prime example of your "foreign policy"
You idiots are the one who financed the Taliban, Osama bin-laden, and this brought upon 911 on yourself, and indirectly causing the rise of ISIS. The bottom half of this 1998 interview is the proof of that.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/a...
We do what we want! Nobody can stop us! Fuck yeah!
This is just one of HUNDREDS of killings that have claimed tens of thousands of lives of innocent civilians, going on for over a decade. Do you not realize that the time when you could blame it on human error and mistake is long gone? This is indiscriminate killing, nothing else.
I hope you take KGB Putin to task when he kills a load of "civilians" and "children" (males with facial hair and AK-47s driving Toyotas pickups.
No Text.
Bombs Away!!!
Supporting your claims by quoting "globalresearch.ca"?
LOL!
It's called collateral damage.
STILL upset that your side lost WW2 and surrendered, unconditionally, to the US, UK and SU?
The Russian military has no regard for civilian life. What a tragedy.
Play Command HQ online
From the summary "I'm especially saddened to report this given I had become one of the supporters of this charity after recommendations from Slashdot members in a discussion about choosing charities to donate to a while back."
Why? Worried some of your money got lost? Lives are of such low value to you that you are saddened because you gave them money and they got bombed? Be sad because they got bombed, not because you followed a recommendation and gave them money.
Liberals... selfish ivory tower residing....
...I see a lot of going back and forth, and not a single "it's Bush's fault"
You've come a long way.
Go fuck yourself.
Those olive trees are ISRAELI olive trees.
I'm generally not one to comment on the finer points of war, but the terrorist's game plan is to hide behind hospitals and schools. They do this so if they get struck, they can have CNN lay the blame on the troops that strike them. I'm surprised at Slashdot for falling for this too. This is not news for nerds. This is attempted propaganda spew.
When you go to war, you're not supposed to kill the good guys. Not even by mistake.
A soldier that kills friends is worse than the enemy.
If you wish to have a defense, start saying Doctors without Borders are evil. It's a lie, too, but better than "mistake".
And frustrating that we have to listen to Obama give us a lecture on "gun control" when his orders are responsible for the slaughter of thousands of civilians.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
Does anybody even remember why the USA thinks it was supposed to be over there?
Colin Powell, George Bush, Weapons of Mass Destruction. Long since debunked (they were knowingly lying to you)
Terrorists? You think the TSA is stopping them? LOL!
No sig today...
I believe you're mistaken in referencing Iraq. This incident happened in Afghanistan.
You're an idiot.
We've had CNN all through the war crimes of the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the illegal war against Libya, the overthrow of Ukraine's democracy, the bombing of even more countries that have never been a threat to us, the drone assassins that have killed hundreds of kids....
Obviously, none of that was stopped by CNN. Hell, the network supported most of that, along with the rest of the media. Did you think through this talking point before posting it?
President Panty-Waist (aka Putin's prison bitch)
it is just the one religion that is retarded, one is peaceful and about helping others. The other is based around killing anyone different. They are not too much different then Democrats, they want to get rid of anyone who is different.
Anyone who has ever been in the military will not be shocked by this news. It isn't quite the elite organization it's made out to be. It is, after all, made up of the same humans who make mistakes anywhere else.
That said, in the wake of a mass shooting folks lose their minds and demand gun control, bans, etc. Yet we, the US, seem to cause so much collateral damage in our " war " on terror that it's hardly news anymore.
How is it we can decimate others with a drone strike without so much as an apology, yet completely lose our shit when some nutjob shoots up a bus / building full of $victims ?
Maybe the general US population is so desensitized to violence that we just don't notice it anymore.
to avoid this. We actually rebuild the country instead of throwing billions in it's general vicinity and then letting Dick Cheny and his buds take all the money. Seriously, it's just that simple.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Maybe it's time to actually inform yourself about Afghanistan before making such bold statements?
OP publically admitted he had in the past supported Doctors w/o Borders. Doctors w/o borders has been shown to be a terrorist organization. Else why would the USA bomb it. OP is supporting terrorism. We must in an effort to fight terrorism arrest OP, and confiscate /. servers for acting as a conduit to the recruitment of terrorist by allowing OP's post to be posted.
In the USA we have a system of laws so confusing and byzantine that they guarantee anyone in power can do what ever they want to do, and do it legally. OP is running afoul of the law and should be arrested legally. On the other hand good guys such as weapons manufacturers are acting w/in the scope of the law and should be awarded government contracts. See it all makes sense. God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.
in war, all targets are legitimate, that includes hospitals and civilizans... to do otherwise is just ignorant and prolongs the war and suffering for all.
Very well said, now watch the Israeli shills mod you down.
Boots were on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were withdrawn for a reason. Presenting the locals with something to shoot at wasn't improving stability in the region.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Hillary is that you? "What difference does it make"
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I hope you take KGB Putin to task when he kills a load of "civilians" and "children" (males with facial hair and AK-47s driving Toyotas pickups.
I'm sure the articles are already written.
(||) Nehmo (||)
If the Washington Post's article's details are correct, this was NOT a bombing gone awry. It was artillery rounds (and possibly 40mm cannon fire) from an AC-130 Spectre, a gunship that's been in use since the Vietnam era. They're usually pinpoint accurate, every round is fired with an eyeball targetting via low-vision video, and there'll be full video tape of the entire action.
Doesn't make it any nicer, doesn't make it any less of a screw-up (in fact, more so). Lots of videos online of Spectre working out in Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
The hospital should consider itself lucky: those hits were probably only 105mm howitzer rounds. If they'd been multiple thousand pounders, the catastrophe and casualties would've been even greater.
Of course if the Post is wrong and this was NOT an AC-130 .. never mind.
The only politician who comes to mind as meeting that condition is John McCain.
The US knew the precise location of the hospital. They kept bombing for thirty minutes after the hospital called to say "stop bombing us". The US has engaged in a heinous act of terrorism against Doctors Without Borders.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
so that makes it ok USA #1 .
This is a meta-comment. Any hospital bombing is horrible, much more so if they are intentional or due to incompetence - though I do not understand why it should matter whether you donated money to charities involved or not (why on earth did you keep that part in the story). That is not what this comment is about.
Slashdot used to be news for nerds, stuff that matters. I just clicked About and read through the FAQ, without seeing any sort of statement about what is the purpose of Slashdot, and what it currently aims to be. It seems to be a place where you can submit "stories". So what type of site do you aim to be, Slashdot? Because this particular type of news I get in almost any other online news channel, with opportunities to discuss and comment. Yes, it is horrible. I don't want to read about it on Slashdot also.
The more you try to be like any other site out there, the worse this site gets. You might get a few more clicks today, but in the end you are ruining what used to make this site good.
In Afghanistan, there are nearly no Arabs. It's inhabited by Pashtuns, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazara, Aimaqs and other ethnic groups, none of them is Arab or speaks a semitic language.
Maybe it's time to actually inform yourself about Afghanistan before making such bold statements?
Erm.. I think you'll find that Muslims are more than adequate at speaking Arabic seeing as how it's the language of the religion itself...
This is not how you get new friends.. this is how you get terrorists. I for one hope Europe stops looking at US as the protector and understands it it the destroyer.
It's time to leave well enough alone in the world. The US is not the good force that it was that helped end WW1 and WW2. I suspect that the cold hearted sociopaths that run the military and much of the federal government is more concerned with spin than soul searching after this event.
I like this one
http://www.globalresearch.ca/t...
(...)
Before his next appearance on Fox, Kristol could do worse than peruse Professor Hamoud Salhi’s address, presented at the Center for Contemporary Conflict, of the (U.S.) Naval Postgraduate School in June 2004.(iii pdf) It is entitled: “Syria’s Threat to America’s National Interest.” It is arguably even more pertinent now – and another reminder of how long Syria has been in U.S. sights.
He opens: “Syria’s threat to America’s national interest in the Middle East can only be understood in the context of U.S. plans to reconfigure the Middle East. Knowing now that the motive for invading Iraq was strategic, taking over Syria would give the United States further strategic depth in the region tipping the balance of power (even more) in favour of the United States regional allies, Israel and Turkey.”
Salhi notes that “strategic pre-emption” is long central to American policy in the Middle East, citing Rapid Deployment Forces during the Carter Administration, Dual Containment under Clinton, Pre-emptive Doctrine under George W. Bush. Polices, he holds, which: “have been instrumental in maintaining hegemony in the region”, avoiding threats to U.S interests, or to those of Israel,Turkey and the Gulf States.
After the 1998 US-UK Christmas bombing of Baghdad drew world-wide criticism, Salhi points out that the often daily (illegal) bombing of Iraq by the two countries was stepped up, with often daily sorties, “using the latest technology” destroying what minimal economic infrastructure remained: “under the pretext that they represented future threats.” It was he contends, the “quiet war”, an ongoing tragedy little noticed by the world.
The ground was – literally – being prepared for invasion, the trigger finger ever itchier, any excuse sought. George W. Bush would later explain that invading Iraq was necessary: “ to advance freedom in the greater Middle East ” (Emphasis mine.)
11th September 2001 arguably gave the excuse to release the safety catches. On 20th September 2001 PNAC sent a letter to Bush: “ recommending the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, even if no direct link to the 9/11 attack were found.” Time to redeem American: “supremacy in global politics (and for) regime changes in Iraq, Iran and Syria.”
Michael Ledeen, foreign policy expert, another neo-con minded Fox News commentator, alleged to be a “strong admirer” of Niccolo Machiavelli, regarded 1991’s Desert Storm attack on Iraq as a woeful missed chance states Salhi. He notes Ledeen’s view that driving Iraqi troops from Kuwait was wholly inadequate. Strategy should have been: “regime change in Baghdad” (as) “one piece in an overall mission”, which should have been: “one battle against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Saudi Arabia.”
Addressing “The Syrian Threat”, Professor Salhi reminds of the U.S. Congress 2004 “Syria Accountability Act” which considerably financially weakened Syria’s fragile economy, with further aims clearly paving the way to regime change.
That achieved: “the United States will have completed its final stage of encircling Iran. This would further tip the region’s balance of power in favour of Israel and ultimately open new doors” for the U.S. “active involvement in toppling the Iranian regime.”
(...)
Afghanistan is just a side gig, perhaps simply an opportunity to wage war even if it's strategically useless. The "revenge war against 911" narrative needs the US to go in Afghanistan : if you only attack Iraq, every one knows it's unjustified because there's no Al Qaeda or Bin
That sounds suspiciously similar to claiming that all Catholics are Romans, because the Church still uses Latin.
That's like saying Catholics know Latin. Very few Afghans know Arabic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
This space intentionally left blank
Russians did. 400K dead vs 20+ MILLION dead. Now you tell me who did the actual fighting.
If you don't get the reference:
https://books.google.ca/books?id=3bABwDOExOMC&pg=PA135
Sadly similar, 43 years later.
That's like saying Catholics know Latin. Very few Afghans know Arabic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I guarantee you they'll know the call to prayer and the prayers themselves at the absolute minimum. along with the usual greetings etc
Western propaganda tries to convince us that it is Russian bombers that bomb wrong targets.
...and jump on TV within minutes and call for the ban of missiles and bombs! Glad that dumb shit Cuomo isn't threatening to shut down government if we don't stop bombing innocent foreigners. Glad they're not calling for us to stop supplying guns to Syrian "rebels" to fight tyrants (even though they think we shouldn't have the same right... maybe because they realize they're the tyrants).
Its because it's Obama's fault !
I guess this is what they call a "surgical strike"
Religion is the root of all evil.
In other words...
They played us like a damn fiddle!
I figured I should add a citation here in case the next reader isn't familiar with McCain's stance on various military interventions and doesn't know what I'm talking about. Here's an example of what I mean (he had two sons serving in the line of fire at the time):
War is an awful business. The lives of a nationâ(TM)s finest patriots are sacrificed. Innocent people suffer. However just the cause, we should shed a tear for all that is lost when war claims its wages from us. But there is no avoiding this war. We tried that & our reluctance cost us dearly. While this war has many components, we canâ(TM)t make victory on the battlefield harder to achieve so that our diplomacy is easier to conduct. That is not just an expression of our strength. Itâ(TM)s a measure of our wisdom.
2004 Republican Convention Speech , Aug 30, 2004
McCain generally opposed interventions where there was no clear "win", no exit strategy. He has repeatedly argued that once we are engaged, we need to be "in it win it", get it done and over with.
A shining example of the enlightened secular world right there.
I believe you're mistaken in referencing Iraq. This incident happened in Afghanistan.
You're saying it's a different war and you got +5 insightful? Jeez. I think I see where the _real_ problem is.
No sig today...
You conflated Iraq and Afghanistan and the guy who corrected you is the problem?
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein
Let Putin handle the bombing plz...
The US is the supreme country and if they bombed a hospital full of innocent people then you can be sure that there was a damn good reason. I suspect that there was probably a secret rocket base, terrorist enclave, or laboratory developing weapons of mass destruction secreted within the hospital. It's well known that terrorists use hospitals and other public places full of defenceless and innocents to deter retaliation by supremacist governments. That's why they build hospitals in those countries: to hide terrorists. It's quite obvious and they need to be eliminated whatever the cost.
The death and torture camps run by the US, which are full of Jews... err, Muslims, extract vital intel from these extremists and undesirables every single day. Do people really suggest that this intel should be ignored? The only obvious course of action is to destroy more civilian targets (which are, after all, probably full of Muslims anyway so no harm is really done). Peace and the oppression of terrorism is the highest priority so these costs are acceptable.
Wait... this is starting to sound a whole lot like another story I've read in my history books :(
It's direct - a lot of money from the Saudis and a lot of help from Turkey.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-10-03/russia-claims-isis-now-ropes-fighters-desert-after-60-airstrikes-72-hours
So Russia can accomplish in a few days what the USA couldn't do in a year? The USA wanted Assad gone before it did any meaningful attacks on ISIS. So now the Russians (along with Iranian, Lebanese & Russian mercenaries) will wipe out the USA/Saudi backed terrorists as well as ISIS.
The USA has now destroyed Ukraine and not got Crimea away from Russia and that Qatar gas pipeline across Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey to displace Russia's gas to Europe will NEVER get built. Way to go USA. Why don't you just quit while you are behind.
So the rest of the countries in the middle east and central Asia with "terrorist" problems will look and say "Damn those Ruskies know how to kick ass! Let's get them to help us and to hell with the USA". You just lost Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan and all the central Asian countries. Well done!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDw-zFFhFgc
Their guy in Afghanistan misspoke and called it "Borders Without Doctors", which in an ironic way might be how best to describe that area now.
We attacked the Taliban at night. They retreated straight to the hospital (likely expecting a safe haven). The C-130 was tracking their movements from above and fired its computer aimed cannons on them as they retreated. Either the C-130's display was lacking the exclusion zone or in the heat of the firefight the 18 year old soldier feeding coordinates to the cannon via the infrared display (it is eerily similar to a video game) failed to notice the exclusion zone. The exclusion zone would have appeared as a transparent polygon overlay on the display. It is possible that the fight so quickly moved into the exclusion zone that the operator missed that the entire series of events was occurring inside the zone.
Kunduz became the front line last week. The front line is not a good place for a hospital, why hadn't DWB evacuated?
it is just the one religion that is retarded, . . . based around killing anyone different.
Well, that's a pretty good summary of the Old Testament, but have you heard the word of Jesus Christ? His teachings eschew bigotry in favor of loving your brothers and treating them as you would have them treat you. You should look into it. I hear it's catching on.
These tragic events will continue to happen until the Congress passes reasonable commonsense laws that limit the access of bombs by presidents.
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.
I think Taliban, ISIL, etc. are all the same, just upgrades of the same warring factions. It's all pure hell in a hand basket.
The local Afghan governor said yesterday that "sadly, they had to to di", because Talibans were passing through, getting treatment from MSF and borrowing (temporary stealing) the cars. Also, there is no other airforce in the area and no other hospital in that region, located ***between*** two Taliban positions (see map).
It was a clear-cut tactical decision to destroy the hospital and they kept on bombing it for almost a full hour until the central building was leveled to the ground. The MSF central has already announced that they are pulling out of Kunduz completely, which was in fact the real goal behind the bombing. If they go back there, they will be bombed again, and again, and again...
"Abashed the Devil stood, and felt how awful goodness is..."
Like Catholics know a bit of Latin, like "In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti" or "Corpus Christi".
If a man gets in his car and kills a pedestrian, and claims that it was accidental, the story is plausible. If he gets in his car the next week and kills another pedestrian, he gets the benefit of the doubt. If it happens the following week, suspicions are on the rise, but still nothing can be proven. Can you see where this is going? If he accidentally kills another 5 pedestrians over the next 2 months, then something is clearly wrong, although still nothing can be proven.
The question is how many times this "accidental" homicide needs to occur before we can say, without a doubt, that this man poses a threat to the lives of innocent pedestrians, and KNOWS it -- and that by letting him get behind the wheel, it is highly likely that a pedestrian will die. Is it 5 times? 10? 50? 100? 500?
This is the situation with the US government and their worldwide military projects. Every time an innocent is killed, they claim it was accidental. But the threshold between "accidental" and "willingly" is ignored, as if it doesn't exist. The exact threshold may be debatable, but its existence is not. How many "accidental" killings need to happen before we can say that by going ahead with the next strike, they KNOW that innocents will be killed? 5? 10? 50? 100? 500?
The problem, of course, is that KNOWING clearly raises the degree of homicide, and yet the US government is never held accountable.
A shining example of the enlightened secular world right there.
Being ignorant of Afghan sects does not make one secular - it's probably one of those "Christians."
If you want to say nigger, say nigger, you racist piece of shit.
The only thing "wrong" with MSF is that being nicer people than me they'd probably help you if you needed it.
Watch this Heartland Institute video