While the US House of Representatives was voting for another big check for more occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan – and the Senate prepares to do the same, the Afghan parliament is calling for a reconsideration of the US presence:

Afghanistan will review regulations governing the presence of tens of thousands of foreign troops fighting a bloody Islamist insurgency, Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said yesterday.
The review was demanded by parliament after US air strikes against Taliban insurgents killed civilians in the western province of Farah this month.

An interim administration in 2002 signed agreements with foreign troops regulating their activities in Afghanistan but times have changed, Spanta said.

“Today we have an elected government, an elected parliament, free media,” the minister told reporters. “This requires the agreements we had signed as a country then, with no government, seven years ago, to be reviewed.”

“It is our duty and responsibility to defend the rights and dignity of the Afghans. It is our duty and responsibility to know why Afghans are jailed. It is our responsibility to see whether our compatriots are tortured or not.”

Good luck with that. We already know that demands to halt deadly air strikes won’t be listened to and the DOD is continuing to contest the reports from the site of the Bala Baluk killing:

The U.S. military said its inquiry, a forensic-style examination of everything from flight logs to radio transmissions from the field, could take weeks more. American officials have advanced the theory that the Taliban killed large numbers of villagers with grenades, infuriating local people who describe buildings clearly blown apart by far larger external blasts. (ed: and clearly seen in the video above).

While one unit – the Fox Company of the Marine Special Operations Forces – have been responsible for all three of the largest civilian casualty events, two of which occurred after MSOC was removed from Afghanistan for acting like cowboys the first time around, the DOD is not worried: (h/t Cernig for link via email)

The spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Greg Julian, denied reports that commanders had lost confidence in Marsoc and insisted the group was operating under the same rules as everyone else.

"They have the same rules of engagement that everyone has and there’s a tactical directive for all international forces," he said. "Marsoc was involved in these incidents, but it’s not all the same guys. They get the lessons learned passed on from all of the rotations and experiences. Yet they are human."

Now we hear that Blackwater … oops, I mean XE … too is up to their old tricks and as unrepentant as ever as four off-duty contractors allegedly shot and killed one Afghan and wounded two others. The DOD is as efficient as well:

"Blackwater violated the letter of authorisation by giving these guys these guns," Callahan said. "And now they want to put the blame on them so as to relieve Blackwater of the violation."

Anne Tyrrell, a spokeswoman for Xe – based in Moyock, North Carolina – said the company was not entirely banned from carrying weapons in Afghanistan. "It really depends on the work," she said.

Kubik, the US military spokesman, said he did not know whether the contractors were allowed to carry weapons or not.

To complete the Groundhog Day sensation, today there’s word that Kabul might get its very own Green Zone.

I’m having trouble remembering, as supporters of the Afghan surge tell me so often, that Afghanistan is not Iraq.


Related posts:

  1. More Troops for Afghanistan? Faster Withdrawal from Iraq?
  2. Remember Iraq or Ray Odierno is Still Wrong
  3. You Never Xe The Drones Coming
  4. Costs of Iraq, Afghanistan Wars Proving Unsustainable
  5. McChrystal Wants More Troops, More Billions for War in Afghanistan