Gen. McChrystal: We've Shot 'An Amazing Number Of People' Who Were Not Threats

[kpete]

Source: Talking Points Memo

Gen. McChrystal: We've Shot 'An Amazing Number Of People' Who Were Not Threats
Justin Elliott | April 2, 2010, 3:09PM

In a stark assessment of shootings of locals by US troops at checkpoints in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in little-noticed comments last month that during his time as commander there, "We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

The comments came during a virtual town hall with troops in Afghanistan after one asked McChrystal to comment on the "escalation of force" problem. The general responded that, in the nine months he had been in charge, none of the cases in which "we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it."

In many cases, he added, families were in the vehicles that were fired on.

Every two weeks, McChrystal participates in a virtual town hall in which soldiers in Afghanistan submit questions by chat that he answers over streaming audio.

Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/gen_mcchrystal_weve_shot_an_amazing_number_of_peop.php?ref=fpblg

[Rage Inc.]

1. This is the guy.....

...who wanted 80,000 additional troops???

[theoldman]

2. We could leave and let them kill each other.

Either way, a lot of people are going to get killed. It's a tough choice for Obama and we will know years from now if he made the right choice.

[EFerrari]

3. This is also the guy that hid/ is hiding prisoners from the ICRC.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/05/who-is-stanley-mcchrystal.html

[Robb]

4. 30 is not an "amazing number," General.

596 is, and that's how many civilians the UN counted "our side" accidentally killed in 2009.

Looking at that number I don't think the checkpoint fiasco is where you should focus first.

[pundaint]

5. Not so much shameful as UNAMERICAN! This is not what WE are about, you twisted murderous fuck.

[buckrogers1965]

6. The problem with military training

Is that soldiers are trained to go 100% with every weapon at their disposal. They are able to stop and repel armed attacks from platoon sized infantry units with a single squad that is dug into position.

This level of violence is literally overkill when you are dealing with a civilian that gets confused and comes forward too far.

Probably killing some old guy because he doesn't understand your screamed orders is not likely to win over the hearts and minds of the local population.