October 5, 2015
Deborah Dupre
Medecins
Sans Frontieres UK director Vickie Hawkins' statement: "disgust" by
government statements justifying violence targeting Kunduz Hospital,
"admission of a war crime".
Medicines San Frontiers, YouTube
United States military officials' story regarding its airstrikes targeting Doctors Without Borders
(Medecins Sans Frontieres, MSF) on Saturday is changing, with the
latest MSF hospital massacre rationalization and admission of a war
crime explained Monday: The Afghan military caused the U.S. to bomb the hospital.
MSF says the U.S. is shifting the blame to Aghans, while in their
statements, both parties have admitted committing the war crime at the
Kunduz medical facility.
Afghan forces, not U.S. troops, requested that the U.S. bomb Doctors Without Borders' hospital in Kunduz, according to the top U.S. general in Afghanistan on Monday about the early-morning strike that lasted over an hour — burning to death patients in their beds and killing 12 Doctors Without Borders medical staff members.
Expertly blaming someone else for their crime when exposed is a typical sociopath response, albeit old after fifteen years of that in the US-led assault on Afghans. Internationally, rights groups condemn the U.S. for its assault. Nationally, rights groups are mobilizing to protest at US hospitals.
Army Gen. John Campbell told reporters at a press conference Monday that Afghan forces “advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces.” Campbell clarified that his new story differed from initial reports that said U.S. forces were under attack and called in the airstrikes on the hospital for their defense.
“The initial statement that went out was that U.S. forces were under direct fire contact,” said Campbell. “What I’m doing is correcting that statement.”
Afghan officials now refuse to comment on the alleged war crime that Doctors Without Borders says was a U.S. war crime. Abdul Qahar Aram, spokesman for Afghan army’s 209th Corps in northern Afghanistan, said he could not comment on specifics of the hospital bombing. A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had no immediate comment about Campbell’s statements.
Officials' comments during the weekend differed to Campbell’s. Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter stated Sunday that U.S. forces were under attack.
“At some point in the course of the events there [they] did report that they, themselves, were coming under attack. That much I think we can safely say,” Carter told reporters.
Monday, Campbell confirmed that the aircraft that conducted the attack was an AC-130 gunship, "a unique aircraft dedicated almost entirely to support special operations forces," according to the Washington Post. "While most jets streak across a target, moving quickly and dropping either bombs or firing fixed weapons like cannons or machine guns, the AC-130 essentially loiters over a target, flying overhead in a circle and firing from weapon ports mounted on the aircraft’s left side.
“It’s a visual acuity aircraft,” said a U.S. close-air support pilot who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his active duty status. “An AC-130 finds the friendly force, then fires over their left or right shoulder.”
An AC-130 does not enter enemy airspace and look for targets, he added. It specifically has to be guided on to the target by a force on the ground.
“It’s a very deliberate process,” he said.
For the attack to be a war crime, it must be proven that it was deliberate.
Physicians for Human Rights is the most recent organization to express horror about the attack.
"I'm sure you were as horrified as I was to learn that a U.S. airstrike hit a Doctors without Borders clinic in Kunduz, Afghanistan killing at least 22 people this past Saturday," stated Donna McKay, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Executive Donna McKay. 'Collateral damage' is not an acceptable excuse when health professionals and patients are in the line of fire. Physicians for Human Rights is calling for an independent investigation into the incident. We must work together to ensure that such attacks on health do not become the new normal in warfare."
Earlier Monday, the Norwegian Refugee Council issued a statement explaining that the humanitarian crisis involves trapping people in their homes, with no hospital nor food, water or other survival needs. NRC's Secretary General on Twitter called urgently for a ceasefire.
Not one for words only, American national human rights leader David Swanson has issued a statement about an action plan following the attack of the Kunduz hospital. In an email, he reminded Americans that almost 6 years after President Obama's 2009 "surge," close to 10,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, with the Pentagon campaigning to keep those troops there and add more.
"Our friends at Voices for Creative Nonviolence are mobilizing activists to gather in front of hospitals around the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, under the messages, Dropping Bombs Here would be a War Crime! and The same is true in Afghanistan.
Afghan forces, not U.S. troops, requested that the U.S. bomb Doctors Without Borders' hospital in Kunduz, according to the top U.S. general in Afghanistan on Monday about the early-morning strike that lasted over an hour — burning to death patients in their beds and killing 12 Doctors Without Borders medical staff members.
Expertly blaming someone else for their crime when exposed is a typical sociopath response, albeit old after fifteen years of that in the US-led assault on Afghans. Internationally, rights groups condemn the U.S. for its assault. Nationally, rights groups are mobilizing to protest at US hospitals.
Army Gen. John Campbell told reporters at a press conference Monday that Afghan forces “advised that they were taking fire from enemy positions and asked for air support from U.S. forces.” Campbell clarified that his new story differed from initial reports that said U.S. forces were under attack and called in the airstrikes on the hospital for their defense.
“The initial statement that went out was that U.S. forces were under direct fire contact,” said Campbell. “What I’m doing is correcting that statement.”
Afghan officials now refuse to comment on the alleged war crime that Doctors Without Borders says was a U.S. war crime. Abdul Qahar Aram, spokesman for Afghan army’s 209th Corps in northern Afghanistan, said he could not comment on specifics of the hospital bombing. A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had no immediate comment about Campbell’s statements.
Officials' comments during the weekend differed to Campbell’s. Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter stated Sunday that U.S. forces were under attack.
“At some point in the course of the events there [they] did report that they, themselves, were coming under attack. That much I think we can safely say,” Carter told reporters.
Monday, Campbell confirmed that the aircraft that conducted the attack was an AC-130 gunship, "a unique aircraft dedicated almost entirely to support special operations forces," according to the Washington Post. "While most jets streak across a target, moving quickly and dropping either bombs or firing fixed weapons like cannons or machine guns, the AC-130 essentially loiters over a target, flying overhead in a circle and firing from weapon ports mounted on the aircraft’s left side.
“It’s a visual acuity aircraft,” said a U.S. close-air support pilot who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his active duty status. “An AC-130 finds the friendly force, then fires over their left or right shoulder.”
An AC-130 does not enter enemy airspace and look for targets, he added. It specifically has to be guided on to the target by a force on the ground.
“It’s a very deliberate process,” he said.
For the attack to be a war crime, it must be proven that it was deliberate.
Physicians for Human Rights is the most recent organization to express horror about the attack.
"I'm sure you were as horrified as I was to learn that a U.S. airstrike hit a Doctors without Borders clinic in Kunduz, Afghanistan killing at least 22 people this past Saturday," stated Donna McKay, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Executive Donna McKay. 'Collateral damage' is not an acceptable excuse when health professionals and patients are in the line of fire. Physicians for Human Rights is calling for an independent investigation into the incident. We must work together to ensure that such attacks on health do not become the new normal in warfare."
Earlier Monday, the Norwegian Refugee Council issued a statement explaining that the humanitarian crisis involves trapping people in their homes, with no hospital nor food, water or other survival needs. NRC's Secretary General on Twitter called urgently for a ceasefire.
Not one for words only, American national human rights leader David Swanson has issued a statement about an action plan following the attack of the Kunduz hospital. In an email, he reminded Americans that almost 6 years after President Obama's 2009 "surge," close to 10,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, with the Pentagon campaigning to keep those troops there and add more.
"Our friends at Voices for Creative Nonviolence are mobilizing activists to gather in front of hospitals around the U.S. and elsewhere in the world, under the messages, Dropping Bombs Here would be a War Crime! and The same is true in Afghanistan.
http://www.examiner.com/article/u-s-sociopath-response-to-massacring-doctors-feebly-blame-afghans?CID=examiner_alerts_article
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