America and its allies make modern war in a way that assures “mistakes”
destroy hospitals, and civilian lives are taken by drones. These horrors are
all too often strategic decisions, or the result of the profligate use of needlessly
destructive weapons. They are typically far from accidents.
The destruction of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, including the deaths
of physicians from Doctors
Without Borders, has become the celebrity example of America’s conduct
of war. It is the one that made the news, much like a single child
dead on the beach stood in for five years of unabated refugee flows out of the
Middle East. But Kunduz is more important than just a dramatic news story, in
that it stands as a clear example of a sordid policy.
Target Kunduz
After a series of cascading explanations, the United States settled on blaming
the Afghan military for demanding a strike on the building which was the hospital.
There is truth in that — the request likely did initiate with the Afghans
— but it ignores the larger story of how “accidents” really
happen.
The strike was conducted by an American AC-130, a flying gunship. A retired
Air Force Special Operations officer explained to me that the AC-130 is considered
a “first hit” weapon; its ordnance hits where it is designated to
hit on the first try. The targeted hospital was marked by a U.S. Special Forces
operator alongside the Afghans, using a laser. The AC-130 fired on the hospital
for over
one hour, in 15-minute paced barrages.
How could the US have known the target was a hospital? Easily. Kunduz had been
controlled by the Afghans alongside their embedded Americans for some time.
It was a mature battlefield, with landmarks such as the hospital well-known
on the ground. In addition, NGOs employ organizations such as The International
NGO Safety and Security Association (INSSA)
specifically to coordinate with armed forces working around their sites, to
include providing precise
GPS coordinates to avoid “accidental” targeting. Doctors Without
Borders also directly provides combatants their locations;
in Kunduz, as recently as September
29.