'She was doing what she loved': Young diplomat among 6 Americans killed in Afghanistan

[Recursion]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/07/17640311-she-was-doing-what-she-loved-young-diplomat-among-6-americans-killed-in-afghanistan?lite

Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was one of five Americans killed in a car bomb attack on Saturday in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday. Three of the dead were U.S. service members and the fifth a civilian employee of the Defense Department, Kerry said.

...

"It's a grim reminder to all of us, though we didn't need any reminders, of how important and also how risky carrying the future is with people who want to resist," Kerry told State Department employees on Sunday during a visit in Istanbul, Turkey.

Smedinghoff and the other Americans were traveling in a convoy to southern Afghanistan to deliver textbooks to children in Qalat, Kerry said.

...

"There are no words for anyone to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction for a young 25-year-old woman, with all of her future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy to improve people's lives, making a difference, having an impact" to be killed, Kerry said.

[smirkymonkey]

1. So sad. Sorry to hear this.

We really need to get the hell out of there asap.

[Recursion]

2. I normally ask this sarcastically, but "what about the children?"

It's not like the Afghan government is going to step up and deliver those textbooks. Should we just not do that at all?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

3. "what about the children?"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22058455


Up to 12 civilians - 10 children and two women - are reported to have been killed in a Nato air strike in eastern Afghanistan.

A further six women are believed to have been injured in the incident in Shigal district, Kunar province.

Villagers and officials told the BBC that the casualties were inside their homes when they died.

Nato confirmed that "fire support" was used in Shigal after a US civilian adviser died in a militant attack.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? Gandhi

[Recursion]

4. Awful. A good argument for drones over piloted air strikes

Drones are much more accurate

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

5. Did you leave out the sarcasm thingy?

[Recursion]

7. Nope. This is another example of that.

Drones don't have to get in and out as quickly so they can take more time in targeting. Not sure how well that works in direct close support though.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. How about we just get out and take our killing machines with us?

After all, we lost...again.

[Recursion]

10. As we learned in 2001, ignoring failed states doesn't make them go away

I'm ambivalent about leaving Afghanistan, but I definitely don't think it would be as easy or as great an idea as a lot of people seem to think.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Falling dominoes? Will the Taliban use the Ho Chi-Minh trail to invade Boston?

It seems we've heard that excuse for our wars before.

[Recursion]

12. Pakistan has the bomb.

The big worry is that the Taliban will use the Hindu Kush to overthrow Pakistan, who have the bomb.

But, more generally, we have a pretty dramatic example from 12 years ago of what can happen when people use a failed state as a safe haven.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. So does Brazil, Israel, India, China, France, etc.

We have a pretty dramatic example of what happens when we aided extremist to fight proxy wars against bogeymen 12 years ago.

We got into Afghanistan (and, Iraq) so that Bush could look tough and look like he was doing "something" after 9/11. We are now trying to extract ourselves from the fiasco without losing too much face, by using drones to show we're "doing something" in a lost war.

The war has always been and continues to be a deadly form of showbiz for politicians and the military too afraid to admit they lost another one.

[Arctic Dave]

6. Why did she need to deliver them?

Seems odd that she had to personally give them to the children. With several military personell too.

Of course if she was a spy we would never be told the truth.


Sounds like a bullshit story to me.

[Recursion]

8. You're actually accusing a 25 year old FSO killed in the line of duty of being a spy?

Sorry if I'm getting pissed; the foreign service is just a pretty small town.

She had to deliver them personally because that was her job as an FSO.

[Arctic Dave]

14. If she was we would never know.

Delivering books is an option, not a requirement of her job.

The FSO is as corrupt as any other US office.

[ocpagu]

18. Come on.

Almost every diplomat is a spy.

[Dash87]

15. We can't even deliver textbooks to American children.

We should definitely start here. We don't seem to be doing it well in Afghanistan either - we mostly just seem to be killing the children, not helping them.

[Comrade Grumpy]

16. She died in the service of naked imperialism. She'll get a nice plaque at Foggy Bottom.

Sometimes when you invade their countries, people don't like you very much.

[rusty fender]

17. What about the 18, 19, 20 year old soldiers, etc.,

that die over there? Isn't that a contradiction of their futures ahead of them? Bullshit! The presence of just one American over there is bullshit. Americans should not still be there killing Afghans!

General Dempsey is there now to determine how many soldiers to deploy to Afghanistan after we "leave". Will the General take the wrong lesson from these latest American deaths and conclude that we need to deploy more soldiers after we "leave"?