Afghans: US airstrikes kill 14 workers

[ProSense]

Afghans: US airstrikes kill 14 workers

By AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writer
Wed Nov 28

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S.-led coalition troops killed 14 road construction workers in airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan after receiving faulty intelligence, Afghan officials said Wednesday.

The coalition said it was looking into the incident in Nuristan province, but did not immediately comment. NATO's International Security Assistance Force said it has conducted airstrikes against Taliban fighters in the area, but did not say when.

"ISAF was engaged in Nurgaram and Du Ab (districts), and in those places we used airstrikes against (Taliban)," ISAF spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco told a news conference. "The situation is not clear at all at this stage. We are carrying out the investigation and trying to get a clear picture."

The engineers and laborers had been building a road for the U.S. military in mountainous Nuristan province, and were sleeping in two tents in the remote area when they were killed Monday night, said Sayed Noorullah Jalili, director of the Kabul-based road construction company Amerifa. There were no survivors, he said.

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[High Plains]

1. A casual observer might get the impression...

...that the Americans don't give a shit about Afghan civilian casualties. We've been killing the hell out of them for five years now. Bombing weddings, bombing houses full of families, bombing civilian traffic....

I was there two years ago. I had a young man who worked as a translator for Western media. Quite friendly, very curious about American culture, but he told me he wanted to kill American soldiers because they were too quick to kill innocent Afghans. Way to make friends and influence people, USA!

[ProSense]

2. The casual observer could be right. The most compassionate thing to do while the carnage continues

is to say "I support the troops" (and too often that isn't even true).