Accidental Deaths

It wasn’t long before NATO officials expressed regrets. On the scale of apologies, they found an excuse from the lower rungs of the ladder to explain the Afghan deaths caused by “allied” warplanes last weekend. Among the dead were at least four civilians the NATO resolution was supposed to protect from Gadhafi’s forces as well as nine of the anti-Gadhafi rebels the French intended to help with their air attacks.

Earnest attempts to minimize the incident were not forthcoming because it was such a blatant failure. Even an attempt to shift blame onto the evil Gadhafi forces was abandoned early on. Then the official NATO explanation for the “error” quickly followed the next day. It contained the sentence, “We take reports of civilian deaths seriously.” Whether or not the NATO powers-that-be are aware of the cynicism of that phrase remains unclear. What is certain is that the bombing will continue.

Years of the same thing in Afghanistan have familiarized us with this sort of verbal preparation and follow-up to murder from the air. It’s now much the same in Libya, including the standard operating procedure “shoot first and ask questions later.” If it moves, it’s a legitimate target and no one needs to consider what might really be happening down there. Colonel Klein is everywhere.*

*Translator’s Note: Colonel Klein is the German Army commander who ordered air strikes on two tanker trucks in Afghanistan that killed or injured over 140 civilians. Charges against Klein were dropped after an exhaustive military investigation.