The destruction of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, with
22 dead so far, including doctors, other staff and patients, capped a week
that also saw the bombing of? another hospital in Afghanistan, plus the U.S.-backed
Saudi Arabian bombing of a wedding party in Yemen set up in tents far out in
the desert, away from anything remotely military. (What IS it about wedding
parties that U.S. and allied bombers keep hitting them?).
The Pentagon relied on its language of “collateral damage,” trying once again
to distance itself from any responsibility for this most recent atrocity in
Afghanistan. But there is no distance. This is the direct and inevitable result
of an air war waged by U.S. pilots flying U.S. planes dropping U.S. bombs on
an impoverished and war-devastated country still immersed in the war that began
14 years ago this week. Since that time the U.S. has spent $65 billion to train
and equip a military and police force accountable to U.S. goals and the U.S.-installed
government. But it hasn’t worked.
Kunduz is a large city in northern Afghanistan, and while residents and others
had noted moves by the Taliban to surround the city in recent months, it wasn’t
until last week’s seizure of the town by Taliban forces that U.S.-backed officials
in Kabul took any notice. The corruption-rife and widely discredited Afghan
government then sent troops from its U.S.-trained army to try to retake the
city, even announcing two days later that the Taliban had been routed. But residents
and other observers reported the Taliban remained largely in control, and the
U.S. sent warplanes on bombing raids, ostensibly to bolster its junior partners.
Eye (and ear) witnesses from the international humanitarian organization reported
that despite having provided precise GPS coordinates to U.S. and Afghan military
authorities to prevent exactly this kind of attack, the hospital was “repeatedly
hit very precisely during each aerial raid, while surrounding buildings were
left mostly untouched.” The Pentagon refused to take responsibility, saying
only that its airstrikes “may have resulted in collateral damage.” President
Obama expressed condolences to the victims but refused to apologize for the
strike.