Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

Donate

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Email
  • RSS
  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2023 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Uncategorized

Karzai: President Obama, Stop this Bombing

Juan Cole 11/06/2008

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email
0 Shares

Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on president-elect Barack Obama to reverse the increasing US and NATO dependence on air strikes to combat anti-government guerrillas. The call came in the wake of reports that a US bombing raid intended to disrupt Taliban supply lines to the southern city of Qandahar had accidentally killed 40 civilians and wounded 28 in a wedding party procession near the village of Shah Wali Kot.

Wedding parties in Taliban-controlled areas would be difficult to distinguish from supply convoys from the air, and wedding celebrations often involve tribesmen firing their weapons into the air in celebration, so that they might appear to be hostile to low-flying US helicopters or surveillance aircraft. The US says it will investigate the incident, which would be the third major such bombardment of civilians since July. Some unnamed US officials admitted to the BBC that there were civilian casualties in the air raid.

US air strikes in Afghanistan are up 31% this year. The tactic had been avoided by US commanders in 2004 and 2005 as too risky, since mistaken bombardment of civilian villagers would alienate the Pushtun population in the south and might create sympathy for the Taliban.

Karzai clearly has pleaded with George W. Bush to reduce the incidence of air strikes, and been rebuffed. It is remarkable that he is already appealing directly to Obama, going above Bush’s head so to speak.

Obama has pledged increased ground troops for the Afghanistan War, in addition to earmarking $1 billion for civilian aid to combat the poverty that sometimes creates dissatisfactions that benefit the Taliban.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

Primary Sidebar

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter and have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.

Twitter

Follow Juan Cole @jricole or Informed Comment @infcomment on Twitter

Facebook



Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2023 All Rights Reserved

Posting....