What we have at the moment
"This was a tragic mistake. U.S. forces would never intentionally strike a hospital or other protected facilities," U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell, the commander of international and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said at a news conference to announce the results of the investigation.
"The aircrew transmitted to their operational headquarters at Bagram airfield that they were about to engage the building," he said. "They provided the coordinates for the MSF trauma center as their target. The headquarters was aware of the coordinates for the MSF trauma center and had access to the no-strike list but did not realize that the grid coordinates for the target matched a location on the no-strike list or that the aircrew was preparing to fire on a hospital."
Campbell called the strike "an example of human and process error."
Investigators said they found no evidence that the crew or the U.S. special forces commander on the ground who authorized the strike knew the targeted compound was a hospital at the time of the attack.
Still, "some individuals have been suspended from their duty positions," Pentagon spokesman Gen. Wilson Shoffner said at the conference. "The investigation found that some of the U.S. individuals involved did not follow the rules of engagement."
From the Internal MSF Report
On Friday, two MSF flags were placed on the roof of the hospital, in addition to the existing flag that was being flown at the entrance to the Trauma Centre. 8 The KTC was also one of the only buildings in the city that had full electricity from generator power on the night of the airstrikes.
Many staff describe seeing people being shot, most likely from the plane, as people tried to flee the main hospital building that was being hit with each air strike.
Some accounts mention shooting that appears to follow the movement of people on the run. MSF doctors and other medical staff were shot while running to reach safety in a different part of the compound
So there are more questions than answers.
- The hospital was on a no strike list, the co-ordinates were known.
- The US military report does not refute one point raised in the Internal MSF report [see link for the report]
- So our trillion dollar a year military machine with all the high tech equipment for targeting etc etc cannot obey simple rules of engagement? If you don’t know what you are shooting at, why are you shooting?
- The stonewalling of an independent inquiry does not lend credence to the internal US military report.
- The accusations after the fact by the Afghan defense minister that the trauma center was used by Taliban and/or Pakistan operatives. Then our own changing of the story muddy the waters further.
- So they produce [late] a 3000 page report that they do not publish, say a few have been sent to bed without milk and cookies and we should just take it as read?
- Good job it’s a long week-end national holiday, eh?
So that’s that then, after all our hats are still white and anything we say will be taken as the truth.
Other questions remain:
- How often has this happened in the past, and what is the plan to prevent it happening again?
- Our military has admitted its own incompetence bordering on negligence and somehow they will magically put it right by themselves?
- Do they only investigate when they are shouted at loudly enough?
This is why an independent investigation is essential, not only to find out what really happened and who was responsible, but to stop it happening again because at the moment we are still bombing merrily away in the Middle East. Do we know in fact who the hell we are killing and maiming, or do we just assume that we are doing a “heck of a job”? The only solution proposed by virtually everyone in the “West” for Syria is more god-damned bombing, are our allies any better at it than we are since an MSF hospital in Yemen was hit as well as hospitals in Syria. Winning hearts and minds as we go, can you smell the roses yet?
Our hi-tech military blame equipment failure and human error, money wasted or simple whitewash?
Thursday, Nov 26, 2015 · 10:13:09 AM +00:00 · LaFeminista
Just a note:
This is our reply to the world, we may believe we are incapable of doing this deliberately, that is not the question.
The question is does the rest of the world still believe us?
An independent report is necessary.