Afghanistan hospital strike by US Air Forces IS a war crime

The hospital bombing in Afghanistan is an example of a failed policy of nation building in the Middle east. Years ago some US people I knew bragged that the US could do what the other imperialist nations, such as the Soviet Union and Britain, couldn't do: That is to pacify and occupy Afghanistan successfully. They were wrong, pure and simple.

As to the Hospital bombing, according to Yahoo News:

"To be clear, the decision to provide (airstrikes) was a U.S. decision, made within the U.S. chain of command," (Gen. John F. ) Campbell said. "The hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility."

I'm sure it was a mistake and no one in the US military really wanted to hit a hospital. However, the relentless campaign against Afghans who are fighting for their countries sovereignty is a crime against humanity in itself. In this sense, the bombing of the hospital WAS a war crime and the US military leaders and politicians need to be held accountable for it. That is not to say that will happen, that is to say it SHOULD happen.

Campbell has blamed the Taliban for the strike. Yet they were nowhere near the hospital. It may have been an accident, but it shows repeated lack of concern those who are forced to live in a US battlefield. There is never a chance that a US hospital will be hit and US citizens will not lose loved ones due to such "mistakes." Our people are safely tucked away from such horror. Our homes and businesses aren't destroyed. Our old, sick and children are not killed by accident. But we dump such terror on the Afghanistan people so that we can play god and impose our US style democracy on those people against their will.

The resurgence of the Taliban, recently, prove that the country was never subdued and the government there is still seen, by the local people, as the phoney puppet it is. Even before the US started to reduce the troop strength, there were reports of members of the Afghan military opening fire on their paternal US soldiers.

While I don't support the Taliban, they are providing the only military challenge to US imperialism. There are Maoist groups, such as Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan and they are armed. But they have chosen to concentrate on political work over military operations.

Campbell and other military leaders in the US are already planning to send more US troops to Afghanistan for the foreseeable future. They have admitted these extra troops may be permanent. They claim they will be needed for the training of Afghanistan troops, but what they don't say is that the Afghan military lacks enthusiasm for the government the US has bestowed on it. 

It is time to oppose the idea of nation building and the idea of creating US protégées any where in the world. Bring our troops home and don't send anymore anywhere in the Middle east.

-សតិវ អតុ

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