Gen. Dunford's Whopper of the Day

Dear Mr. President,
It must be a job requirement for diplomats, politicians and generals to lie with a straight face. In today’s NYT (Commander Denies U.S. To Blame in Afghan Deaths, p. A4), Gen. Joseph Dunford Jr., “categorically denied any American or NATO responsibility for the deaths [on April 5 and 6] of at least 17 women and children after nearly seven hours of intensive airstrikes near their compound in eastern Afghanistan.…” In spite of local eyewitness accounts and an investigation by the Afghan government, Dunford still insists that the Taliban did it, that all the women and children were alive when the Afghan Special Forces 0-4 Unit and their CIA advisers escaped under cover of a massive bombardment by 4 jets, 2 helicopters, 2 drones and “‘one really big airplane’ that locals described as ‘never running out of fuel or bombs.’” I wrote about this incident in my April 19 letter. The women, children and a mentally ill man were herded into one room of a suspected insurgent commander’s house during the protracted firefight and subsequent bombardment. But Gen. Dunford claims that the Taliban killed their own family members? Their own women and children? That the bombardment had nothing to do with the collapse of the building? This stretches the Goebbels/Hitler dictum about repeating a lie often enough that it becomes the truth. Dunford further claims that this incident has been investigated “ad nauseam” and “No S.O.F., no U.S., no coalition forces were involved in the deaths.” What he doesn’t say is that the military’s investigation remains secret. The only thing new in the article is that the bombs were different than normal bombs: no craters, no crumpled walls or uprooted trees, no casualties ripped open, dismembered or bleeding. There was little physical evidence of the bombing. Eerie. What the Afghan authorities believe is that the bombs were acoustic—like “flash-bang grenades”—to keep the Taliban fighters at bay while the 0-4 unit and CIA guys were evacuated. Two things strike me about this. First, that we—and the Afghan security forces—are not winning the war against the Taliban. And second, even flash-bang bombs kill. Doctors quoted by the NYT said shock waves from the blasts could have caused serious internal injuries that led to the deaths of the 9 women and 11 children. Why are we doing this, Mr. President? This is a zombie war. It’s over but we still have 66,000 troops there and the killing continues. It’s way past time to pack up and leave.