A Mistaken Pentagon Drone Attack? - WSJ
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Did the Biden Administration mistakenly kill 10 innocents, including seven children, as it rushed to the Afghanistan exits last month? That is what a growing body of evidence seems to show, and Congress ought to look for the truth.
On Aug. 29 a U.S. missile blew up a car the Pentagon had been following for hours, as the U.S. evacuation was nearing its end. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called it a "righteous strike" and President Biden mentioned drone strikes as evidence the U.S. was hitting back against ISIS-K for the suicide bomber who killed 13 Americans.
But reporting by the New York Times and Washington Post suggests the attack on the white Toyota Corolla may have been a terrible mistake. It killed Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime employee of the U.S. nonprofit Nutrition and Education International, who had wanted to emigrate to the U.S.
The media accounts are compelling in their detail that Ahmadi wasn’t collecting explosives that day. He had loaded water into the car to bring home because water to his neighborhood had stopped since the Taliban takeover. He stopped during the day at the nonprofit’s office, not an ISIS safe house. The missile that killed him exploded in a crowded neighborhood and the dead included children who approached the car when it backed into a courtyard.
Targeting terrorists is a fraught endeavor, and mistakes are inevitable. But the timing and details of this attack are troubling because the Biden Administration was looking to show it was taking action to protect Americans after the 13 airport deaths.
Mr. Biden had promised revenge, and the Pentagon quickly followed with a strike on two ISIS plotters outside Kabul. The Pentagon still hasn’t released the names of those two, which is odd. The drone attack in Kabul soon followed amid U.S. warnings that another attack on the airport was imminent.
The Pentagon says it is investigating, but that shouldn’t be the end of it. Gen. Milley has squandered much of his credibility by his hard sell of the Afghan evacuation, and he and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin bear some responsibility for its botched execution. The deaths of 10 Afghans won’t resonate with the U.S. public as much as the 13 dead Americans. But the possible mistake has added to the sense of U.S. incompetence and lack of concern for Afghan allies as it sprinted for the exits.
One question is whether anyone in the White House signed off on the strike against Ahmadi. Another is whether Mr. Biden demanded some show of force against ISIS-K. The point isn’t to blame the Reaper drone pilot. The goal is to get those at the top of the Administration to start telling the truth, and taking responsibility, for the calamitous Afghan withdrawal.
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"Targeting terrorists is a fraught endeavor, and mistakes are inevitable. But the timing and details of this attack are troubling because the Biden Administration was looking to show it was taking action to protect Americans after the 13 airport deaths.
Mr. Biden had promised revenge, and the Pentagon quickly followed with a strike on two ISIS plotters outside Kabul. The Pentagon still hasn’t released the names of those two, which is odd. The drone attack in Kabul soon followed amid U.S. warnings that another attack on the airport was imminent."
When the US thinks it’s going to use intelligence from it’s Tollybonn partners in the effort to harass Douche, this will be the outcome every time.
Willing to bet it was the Taliban that gave the Biden administration the hot tip. They are laughing their asses off at him now. They get rid of a thorn in their side that aided the US; and further heighten the growing anti US sentiment among those Afghans that aided the US and were left behind. It will teach others in the future not to trust the US.
This is the reason you don't give deadly toys to moronic demented old men.
The foreign media is not so ambiguous about the American strike on the innocent 10 people. If America needs so much to be the "Policeman of the World" then there are bound to be more "Casualties of War" (Did you ever watch that movie? - it's a true story, and I'm sure merely a specific example of the greater reality). Oh, and such incidents happen, and have happened, no matter who happens or happened to be POTUS at the time, so no reason to be smug or to blame only one administration.
Especially one who botched a withdrawl leaving 13 Marines (one was Navy) dead. Thus, the promise of retaliation. Thus, the random drone strike as we ran from Afghanistan leaving Americans behind.
I think there is blame for this administration.
As I've said, not the first example, and not going to be the last, no matter who is POTUS. There are BOUND to be more incidents when America will hear the words "I can't breathe."
You can say it all you want. Biden promised revenge to save face. The attack was random and served a political purpose, but again they got caught when they refused to tell us exactly who they killed.
I can't disagree with you on that. Liam Neeson had a lot more success with his words in the movie "Taken", "I will look for you, I will find you and I will kill you."
I think General Curtis LeMay said something similar. He's really the guy who loved the smell of Napalm.
Name another US president that left US citizens behind on purpose in the hands of the enemy?
As far as the faux outrage over over US drone strikes that kill innocents; and how we treat our citizens, look to your own back yard first. China is world renowned for it's reeducation camps, making people it doesn't like disappear, and being very low on the human rights spectrum.
China's allies aren't exactly high on the humanitarian scale either. North Korea makes China look like saints when it comes to the way they treat their people; Iran- the world leader in exporting terrorists; Russia- the KGB didn't disband it just changed names and became even more secretive; and no one wants to be a border state with Russia- it isn't good for the health or stability of your country; and finally the newest of the Chinese allies the Taliban proving China doesn't give a shit who they side with so long as it pays off for them.
You want to have an honest conversation on US extra judicial drone strikes; then I am more than willing to do so as I have been dead set against them no matter who was president. From Bill Clinton blowing up a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan thinking it was connected to Al Qaeda; Bush Jr was the President that turned extra judicial drone strikes into weapons; Obama and Trump seem to hate weddings; Obama was Bush Jr on steroids when it came to drone killings- he just changed the way terrorists were counted to avoid high civilian deaths; he also killed two US citizens in drone strikes; and Trump simply stopped reporting civilian collateral damage in drone strikes.
All of those relied on US intelligence reports (I have said repeatedly no US government organization should ever have the word intelligence in it). The real question with Biden's miscue is who he received the intelligence from? Was it the CIA; or was it from the Taliban? If it was the Taliban; then there is a real issue. First that Biden is dumb enough to trust a terrorist group like the Taliban; and second that the Taliban can't be trusted at any level no matter how many platitudes the Biden administration heaps on them. That is a real cause of concern with hundreds of US citizens trapped in Afghanistan thanks to Biden abandoning them.
I changed my avatar a while back in an attempt to establish that I am not Chinese, I don't agree with everything China does, but I will post corrections to misinformation and conspiracy theories that I know are bullshit. From what you wrote, I don't think you disagreed with what I posted so I don't understand the argumentative attitude.
This withdrawal has been an embarrassing clusterfuck. American and allies left behind. Military equipment left behind. Human beings falling to their death from our airplanes. And now we’re bombing innocents.
About as much success with that as America has been having with its containment of the coronavirus. Seems to me that some things should be rethought - so I would say that the braggado about "exceptionalism" could use a little reconsideration..
How completely irrelevant. Some bad things have been happening in Afghanistan the last couple of weeks. That doesn’t mean it’s time to shit on America for everything.
Did I shit on America for "everything"? I thought Identified only two things. Is that all there is?
Actually, I don't think there is a country in the world that doesn't deserve to be shit on for something or other.
Give me some examples of countries that did everything right.
Yeah, you kinda did. When you start going into “Exceptionalism” then you’re taking on general concepts about America as a whole. Stick to the topic, which is a drone attack as part of the withdrawal in Afghanistan, and we won’t have a problem.
LOL. Did I hurt your feelings when I alluded to the fact that Americans think they're better than anyone else, which is somewhat obvious from so proudly bragging about "American exceptionalism"?
LOL. Since you posted that your fingers are also capable of typing the word "google" and doing your own research. As Joe E Brown said at the end of the movie "Some Like It Hot", "Nobody's perfect". I charge a fee (paid in advance) for doing research for others.
The Biden administration was so hot to find somebody to take revenge on as soon as possible. A shame they did not spend enough time and effort making sure they actually had the right person(s).
It’s seem like decision makers have been very unthoughtful all around regarding this withdrawal.