Azizabad Survivors Demand Justice from US;
S. Asian Britons "Boiling" with Anger over US Raids
Aljazeera English reports that the Afghans bombed by the US near Herat are demanding justice.
Apparently an al-Qaeda operative named "Nadir" tricked the US, telling them that there was an al-Qaeda safe house in that village, when in fact they were just civilian villagers.
Afghan authorities say the US killed 90 civilians at Azizabad in Herat province. The US military admits to only a handful.
The Times of London released video that appears to settle the issue in favor of the Afghans.
Barnett Rubin on how the genie can't be put back in the bottle in Afghanistan.
Then there is the "Fury" in Pakistan over US cross-border raids on Waziristan, Pakistani territory, which Chief of Staff Ashfaq Kayani has called unacceptable.
What is even more dangerous than anger in Pakistan is the ire these actions will raise among the already highly alienated and angry British youth of Pakistani heritage. It is almost as if someone wanted to provoke some of them to an act of violence that might return the terrorism issue to the front burner in American presidential politics . . .
posted by Juan Cole @ 9/14/2008 12:17:00 AM
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3 Comments:
I was very interested to read first the justifications given by the US military spokespeople who spoke of "hardened compounds" and of being met by volleys from AK-47s and RPGs. I then read the NY Times piece by the reporters who went to the village. No pictures or descriptions of any sort of hardened or fortified bunkers, buildings or compounds, no pictures or descriptions of captured weapons, no photos of dead militants.
Looks to me as though the Air Force simply set its device parameters to search out and destroy large gatherings. Obviously, our Brave and Glorious Commander-in-Chief did not see fit to demand that the determination that we had spotted a group had to be followed up with a human, on-the-ground, observation that "Yes, the group is a hostile one."
Main NATO supply route through Pakistan is blocked.
Explosion destroys bridge
By Our correspondent
9/14/2008
KOHAT: Unidentified militants Saturday exploded the remaining portion of the bridge at Shinay Killay in Darra Adamkhel, which was bombed in the early days of operation launched on August 29, 2008.
Militants planted explosives under the bridge at the main Indus Highway near the Kohat Tunnel early in the morning and detonated the same destroying the bridge altogether.
Portion of the Indus Highway between the Pak-Japan Friendship Tunnel and the provincial capital is still closed for traffic, while most of the local population has left the valley for safer places.
Still thousands are trapped in the volatile arms manufacturing town due to severing of road links and the political authorities claim to help people out of the area. Authorities told ‘The News’ around two third of 1.2 million population have already left the area.
Meanwhile, security forces continue to pound suspected militant hideouts in Darra Adamkhel in its continued operation against the local Taliban for the 16 consecutive days.
Sounds of heavy shelling and firing can be heard far and wide in Kohat and in the surrounding areas.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=135715
I don't see your argument that Fury needs to have quotation marks around it. The fury seems to me pretty palpable.
I can see why one one might think, according to what you said the other day, that Zardari is quite ready to do under the counter deals with the US, while maintaining a facade of opposition to US operations.
However Zardari's freedom of manoeuvre here seems to me limited. The popular reaction is powerful; he has to bend to that.
And the US is a bit of a broken reed these days, in terms of being able to back up its pressures.
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