Can Regrets Be Asymmetric?

MidnightBombing,MorningShelling
SupremenessVille


Apparently, NATO is sorry that they're killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan.

"That innocent people were wounded or killed is to be regretted and investigated," he (NATO Supreme Commander and US Marine General James Jones) said. "I personally apologize for the incident, for any loss of life, and I expressed my concern to President [Hamid Karzai] this morning."


So, what is El Supremo Jones' explanation as to why even more hearts and minds must be lost to the killing of innocents?

"Sadly, in asymmetric warfare, when you're battling an insurgency, typically the insurgents do not play by the same rules that we would like to play by," Jones said at a news conference at Bagram, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan.

Which is arguable at best. Imagine, for example, what would have happened in Northern Ireland if the British had indiscriminately bombed Catholic neighbourhoods because they had received tips that there were IRA safehouses in the area.

Regardless, his Supremeness also said the following:

"Sometimes in the heat of battle, in the fog of war ... it's hard to separate one from the other and you make a decision on the spot,"

Which somehow doesn't quite jibe with what people on the ground had to say after their houses had been levelled and their loved ones killed by an offensive that was anything but 'on the spot' in terms of its relentlessness.

Villagers told the BBC Pashto service that the bodies of many locals had been pulled from the rubble of their homes after the raids and buried.

"Twenty members of my family are killed and 10 are injured," one survivor said. "The injured are in Mirwais hospital in Kandahar city and anybody can go and see them.

"For God's sake, come and see our situation."

Another man said women and children were among 15 members of his family who had been killed.

"The airplanes came and were bombing until 3 am. And, in the morning, they started hitting our village with mortars and rockets. They didn't allow anybody to come to our help."


Still no definitive word yet if any 'non-regular' Canadian ground (or otherwise) troops were involved (ie. the original report from NATO was just about the furthest thing from definitive possible).


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