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December 10, 2008

American Special Forces in Afghanistan Accidentally Defend Themselves

Hatched by Dafydd

This is rich. First read AP's headline:

US Special Forces mistakenly kill 6 Afghan police

Next, the beginning of their lede graf:

U.S. Special Forces killed six Afghan police and wounded 13 early Wednesday in a case of mistaken identity...

Finally, here are the complete first two paragraphs:

U.S. Special Forces killed six Afghan police and wounded 13 early Wednesday in a case of mistaken identity by both sides after the police fired on the Americans during an operation against an insurgent commander, officials said.

A U.S. military statement said police fired on the American forces after the troops battled and killed an armed militant in the city of Qalat, the capital of the southern province of Zabul. The Americans returned fire on the police but only later learned their identities. One Afghan civilian was also killed in the exchange.

Anybody reading just the headline (which is all that is shown in some news feeds), or even just the headline plus the beginning of the lede (which might be all that is shown on most other feeds), is bound to come away with the impression -- as I did -- that once again, those vicious, violent, bloodthirsty American soldiers were firing indiscriminately, wildly shooting at anything that moves, and they killed a bunch of innocent victims. Again.

But the reality is that the Americans did not make any mistake: They simply returned fire when fired upon, an action always allowed of any unit in any combat zone... even the Dutch can do that much!

But even after admitting that we responded to being fired upon, AP is still determined to blame America for the deaths. They quote a self-serving statement by the deputy governor of Zabul:

Gulab Shah Alikhail, the province's deputy governor, said U.S. Special Forces carried out an operation in a small village near a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Qalat. The police, thinking it was a Taliban attack, opened fire, he said. Then a helicopter fired on the security post and destroyed it, he said....

"Unfortunately, the Special Forces didn't inform the police that they were going to the village," Alikhail said.

Of course, they never quote a single person exonerating the Americans; instead, they earlier quoted a U.S. military spokesman, who says that "Coalition forces deeply regret the incident of mistaken fire," despite the obvious purpose of the statement to provide face-saving cover for the Afghans, who started the whole thing by opening fire without clearly identifying their targets first.

The closest AP comes to admitting that we were not even at fault in keeping the operation secret from the Afghan police is a non-sourced non-quote:

U.S. officials quietly admit that they are hesitant to share detailed plans of raids against militant commanders for fear that government officials connected to the Taliban could tip off the militants of the impending operation. ["Quietly admit," as if they're ashamed of their (probably racist) feelings?]

This comes, of course, seven paragraphs into a ten-paragraph story.

Bear in mind, this is the supposedly "good war" in Afghanistan, that one that even Barack H. Obama supports; yet even so, the elite news media still bend their necks backwards trying to find a way to pin ersatz war crimes onto the American military... even after the ascension of the One!

Reflexive, compulsive habit is evidently very hard to overcome.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, December 10, 2008, at the time of 12:53 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: scrapiron

The Associated (with terrorists) Press never miss a chance to slander U.S. forces. When you see AP substitute BS.

The above hissed in response by: scrapiron at December 10, 2008 9:29 PM

The following hissed in response by: Doc-obiwan

Special Forces don't like to be shot at. They tend to shoot back. With fire discipline and accuracy.

The above hissed in response by: Doc-obiwan at December 11, 2008 9:52 AM

The following hissed in response by: ~brb

"Never apologize and never explain. It's a sign of weakness."

- John Wayne, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

The above hissed in response by: ~brb at December 12, 2008 8:48 AM

The following hissed in response by: Doc-obiwan

"There's only one dead body I'm not prepared to explain, and that's mine." Donald Hamilton's character Matt Helm.

The above hissed in response by: Doc-obiwan at December 12, 2008 9:55 AM

The following hissed in response by: John

Bear in mind, this is the supposedly "good war" in Afghanistan, that one that even Barack H. Obama supports;

That was only until the end of Iraq or we pulled out in shame. Now that Iraq is no longer news its time for the left to turn their attention to destroying the effort in Afghanistan.

The worst enemy faced by American soldiers reside at home.

The above hissed in response by: John at December 13, 2008 3:15 PM

The following hissed in response by: J'hn1

Well given the different noise signature of either the MP5 or M4 compared to the AK, and the rather strict fire control of SF (heck, anglosphere troops in general), I would believe that the police knew exactly who they were attacking, and on behalf of whom.

I believe that it would be found out (if it were to actually be investigated, which it will not be) that the police units were the terrorist's outer perimeter guard, and attacked the American forces when they found out that the American forces had gotten around them to attack one of their protectees. Since they did eventually stop, I am guessing that some of the protectees had finally escaped.

The above hissed in response by: J'hn1 at December 13, 2008 7:20 PM

The following hissed in response by: ASterling

Hi Dafydd - this is what I was mentioning last night:

Pravda in English

It's actually WORSE now than when we looked at in class a few months ago. There's more sex, more Anna Kournikova, and more dumb stuff like "hamsters have more sperm than men" (bottom right ad or whatever). It's oldschool Sov propaganda + the Globe/Star + they must have hired Weekly World News staff.

Re: military - young people are being actively recruited away from the military. They are being taught that the military is full of dumb, evil thugs or "baddies" from Mortal Kombat in GI uniforms or something. One of my students is a former gang member who has turned his life around. He is Latino and reads a lot of the material put out from S. America and had really weird opinions about things until discovering how to research on his own (and then changed his mind). One of my coworkers is a really nice guy, Berkeley Sociology grad, and by coincidence the other day, we were talking about organizational leadership and "vision," etc. He had the basic underlying concepts, and I mentioned that one of the US organizations that had the best leadership and unwavering vision was the USMC. You would have thought I'd said "And the Satan Corps has a bunch of really dedicated gut-slashing demons!" He actually said "Semper FEE" as the motto. I explained to him that people unfamiliar with the military saw a lot of daily propaganda that was in complete opposition to reality. Not sure I "convinced" him but I told him one of the smartest, best men I ever knew was my cousin's husband, retired USMC Lt. Col. who'd been to the War College and served at the Pentagon -

Which is where my student comes in. Raul was convinced that 9-1-1 was an Israeli (or "Jew") plot because "no Jews were in the World Trade Center on 9-1-1" and "a plane didn't hit the Pentagon, it was a bomb." I told him I had personal knowledge this was not true - that a plane did hit the Pentagon and I'd talked to my cousin and her husband on that very day and it was definitely a plane. And I said that particular b.s. lie was really vicious because the plane that really did hit the Pentagon was filled with mostly African-American 8th graders returning from their 8th grade class trip to DC - their first and last trip anywhere. I knew this, I said, because I reviewed the tapes of that plane's crash and the others because I WROTE A BOOK FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS ABOUT IT. You could see the lightbulb going on in his head.

So that is where it is at, and these are both college-educated young men, and Raul is headed for Berkeley soon (architecture). He is a good guy, but who knows where he'd be at if he hadn't learned to think for himself.

The above hissed in response by: ASterling at December 14, 2008 11:00 AM