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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Losing Afghanistan

From here, it sounds like the top issue facing the US in Afghanistan is the growing anti-US sentiment stemming from civilian deaths.
(AP) "U.S.-led coalition airstrikes in southern Afghanistan left at least 30 people, including women and children, killed or wounded, an official said Saturday.... Villagers reported casualty tolls far higher than 30 but those figures were not immediately corroborated by officials."

(NYTimes) "Four civilians were killed early Friday by American and Afghan forces in eastern Afghanistan, according to the leader of a small human rights group who gave an account of the deaths entirely at odds with that of the United States-led coalition."

There's no question the Taleban are hiding among the population, and with the tools available, I don't know how you handle that tactically, but right now it seems that killing civilians may be costing us more than we're gaining in the strikes.

It's undermining both US and Afghani legitimacy.