For starters, the Commander in Chief

[malaise]

must immediately fire whoever gave the orders to strike that hospital in Afghanistan.

[msongs]

1. sorry but obama is not going to resign nt

[HereSince1628]

5. Obama makes all these decisions?

I sort of doubt that.

[cwydro]

6. Obama is the Commander in Chief.

He was notified about the location of the hospital DURING the bombing, and he allowed it to continue.

I regretted my vote for him years ago, and I regret it even more now.

Very sad.

The Nobel Peace prize? What a joke.

[spanone]

7. please provide a link.

[cwydro]

8. I heard this news the morning after, and I heard it on NBC.

If you don't believe me, feel free to search CNN or anywhere else.

It's also in today's New York Times and my local newspaper.

It's sickening and I'm ashamed of my country. The same shame I felt when Bush/Cheney were the war criminals in chief.

[spanone]

9. He was notified about the location of the hospital DURING the bombing,and he allowed it to continue

that is YOUR claim....that the President KNEW it was happening and allowed it to continue.

YOU look it up.

[cwydro]

10. I don't need to look it up because I know it is true.

You obviously want to deny the truth.

There is even a link in another thread in this forum about this very thing.

He KNEW. He allowed the bombing to continue for 30 minutes AFTER being notified. He's a war criminal imo.

It's on the front page of today's New York Times. It's on every major news outlet.

This cowardly, criminal act has been condemned by the international Red Cross and numerous other organizations.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but it HAPPENED. Obama is the Commander in Chief and HE is responsible.

Go hide your head in the sand if that helps you, but it won't change a thing.

[renegade000]

19. Well, I tried looking up these stories and I couldn't find reference to Obama having knowledge

It's a pretty incredible claim to begin with. You seriously think that Obama is just sitting there all day micromanaging military operations in Afghanistan?

This is about as silly as claims that Putin intentionally shot down that airliner over Ukraine.

A serious question: what is the hypothetical purpose of bombing a MSF hospital? What strategic aims does that advance?

As far as I can see it: absolutely none. In fact, it sets the US back. It's a huge embarrassment. It's a war crime.

Much like the MH17 incident was a huge embarrassment for Russia.

Why can't things that look like horrible--and yes, criminal -- fuck-ups by people on the ground just be that? Why must they be conspiracies at the highest levels of power? I mean it's not as if this excuses the people who perpetrated the crime. But perhaps you don't find it satisfying unless it goes all the way up?

[Fred Sanders]

29. The poster obviously believes Obama is in on every one of the thousands of sorties....why are you

introducing logic into fantasy beliefs?

[Andy823]

20. If you "know" it's true

You should be willing to find the source and provide a link.

[Adrahil]

22. Put up or shut up. nt

[malaise]

11. I doubt that big time

This is a Pentagon foul up

[cwydro]

12. Per the New York Times and CNN (among others):

The administration was notified during the bombing.

Obama is the administration, is he not?

Obama is the Commander in Chief, and if he doesn't know what's going on, well he sure as hell should.

He's either completely incompetent or a war criminal. Sadly, I think it's both.

[ColesCountyDem]

13. Google shows nothing of the sort

https://www.google.com/search?q=obama+knew+hospital+bombing&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

What Google does show is that the hospital staff allegedly made some telephone calls to contacts in Afghanistan and Washington DC. Nowhere is there a story about this information being relayed to the White House-- nowhere.

[KamaAina]

15. Obama is the HEAD of the administration.

The notification may not have made it to the Oval Office.

[cwydro]

21. He is also the Commander in Chief.

But I guess only Truman believed that the buck stopped at that desk.

Obama will pretend he knew nothing about it. No surprise there.

[Adrahil]

23. Moving goal posts much?

First you fallaciously assert that the President personally knew a hospital was being bombed and allowed it to continue, and now you assert he is personally responsible becuase he is the C in C. I hate to break it to you, sunshine, but the U.S. Military is very large. As is the U.S. Administration. Someone certainly screwed up here, but Obama is not personally responsible for every fuck up that happens.

I swear to Jeebus....

[Orrex]

49. Can I have him impeached because my local armory plays its stereo too loud?

Exactly how involved in each action and real-time decision to you think the Commander in Chief is?

[Dont call me Shirley]

2. Some bush implant.

[malaise]

3. That was my first thought but you know

Obama left way too many neo-cons and warmongers in place.

[Dont call me Shirley]

4. He did at that, sadly.

[ColesCountyDem]

14. What if the orders weren't to strike a hospital?

What if the orders were, rather, to hit a target whose coordinates the Afghan army gave you, saying it was a building then Taliban were using to fire on them?

[Lee-Lee]

16. Now Now don't be bringing a dash of realism into hysteria

That won't sit well with those demanding heads roll with no real idea what happened.

[ColesCountyDem]

18. Law school tends to snuff any desire to join a lynch mob.

[cwydro]

34. Um, what?

You're a lawyer now?

[ColesCountyDem]

42. When one graduates from law school, one is a lawyer, yes.

Drake University Law School, class of '82.

I'm not an attorney, however, since I don't hold a license.

[cwydro]

45. One has to pass the bar exam, correct?

I believe there are also background checks and other qualifiers.

I thought I saw a post from you some time ago saying you had worked in a call center, but were currently unemployed.

Perhaps I have you mixed up with someone else.

[ColesCountyDem]

46. To be an ATTORNEY, one must do so, yes.

Practice and degree are separate things. All 'attorneys at law' are lawyers, but not all lawyers are 'attorneys at law'. Licensure requires passing the bar exam; graduation with a J.D. does not.

[cwydro]

47. Mm.

That's what I thought.

[ColesCountyDem]

48. Then why did you ask?

Did I ever say otherwise?

[former9thward]

41. The hospital had given its coordinates to the U.S. military to keep from being bombed.

I guess that note went into the garbage can. Did they teach that at your law school?

[ColesCountyDem]

43. They say they did, certainly.

Do you have proof? You're missing the point, which is that a rush to judgment is just stupid.

[former9thward]

44. So Doctors Without Borders is lying?

I'll take their word over the U.S. military.

[Hortensis]

33. Spoilsport. This is big reason why people don't like you Democrats. :)

[bemildred]

36. "you Democrats"? nt

[Hortensis]

37. Yes, as in "you Democrats." Don't you know that's a dirty word to some here? :)

The "If you're not with us, you're against us" crowd.

[bemildred]

38. So what are you if you aren't a Democrat?

Or did you mean "us Democrats" or something?

[Hortensis]

39. It was a joke, Bemildred, apparently a bad one.

Of course I'm a Democrat with or without the bernista slur on the party label.

[bemildred]

40. Good to know thanks. nt

[Adrahil]

24. We don't want your reason here....

I said yesterday that this was likely the results of faulty info from the Afghans. Now, that's not an excuse. We need to do a better job of vetting targets, and not just strike whatever they tell us to.

[Luminous Animal]

25. The U.S. military was repeatedly apprised ot the exact GPS coordinates and

while the bombing had started Doctors Without Frontiers phoned the U.S. military to call off the strikes. Our military did not and continued bombing for an half hour.

To begin with, the organization had repeatedly advised the U.S. military of the exact GPS coordinates of the hospital. They did so most recently on September 29, just five days before the strike. Beyond that, MSF personnel at the facility “frantically” called U.S. military officials during the strike to advise them that the hospital was being hit and to plead with them to stop, but the strikes continued in a “sustained” manner for 30 more minutes.

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/the-radically-changing-story-of-the-u-s-airstrike-on-afghan-hospital-from-mistake-to-justification/

[Adrahil]

27. so, you think they can call a "military official" and ...

...that means the pilot of a gunship knows he's hitting amprotected target? You are optimist. Just because you talk to some JO in an HQ simehwere does not mean you are talking to the people in direct contact with forces that are engaged.

In fact, I would say that is something that needs to be improved.... A direct hotline to folks coordinating airstrikes.

I do not believe, without further evidence, that U.S? Forces were deliberately striking a protected target. If they were, someone should be court martialed.

[MH1]

30. Was the hospital clearly marked with a huge red cross or red crescent?

Maybe I've watched too many WWII movies (actually I haven't watched many) but I thought that medical facilities were supposed to be clearly identified as such, using one of those two universally recognized markings.

IF the hospital was marked, then shouldn't the pilot know that an order to bomb that building was an illegal order and he wasn't bound to follow it?

I don't want to "blame the victim" here. I have been a strong supporter of MSF for years. But this missing piece has been bugging me. If the building was marked, WHY did the pilot continue bombing it? If it wasn't marked, why wasn't it?

Just putting this here because you seem to have read a lot about this, maybe you have seen this question answered?

Or is the idea that a hospital is clearly marked, an antiquated notion?

[cwydro]

35. Thank you.

Apparently, many here don't want to hear the truth.

[Luminous Animal]

26. Because the U.S. military is aware that those coordinates are a hospital.

To begin with, the organization had repeatedly advised the U.S. military of the exact GPS coordinates of the hospital. They did so most recently on September 29, just five days before the strike. Beyond that, MSF personnel at the facility “frantically” called U.S. military officials during the strike to advise them that the hospital was being hit and to plead with them to stop, but the strikes continued in a “sustained” manner for 30 more minutes.

https://theintercept.com/2015/10/05/the-radically-changing-story-of-the-u-s-airstrike-on-afghan-hospital-from-mistake-to-justification/

[Fred Sanders]

31. The coordinates were known to the American army long long ago. They did not check?

Criminal negligence causing mass death is no better than deliberate murder and maybe both sides are to blame?

Trying to pin this on the Afghans means there is a blame game going in now for this massive and completely criminal act.

[liberal_at_heart]

17. Fire? They don't fire anybody. Just like they don't prosecute anybody.

If you work for the government you pretty much have diplomatic immunity.

[questionseverything]

28. dont get all sanctimonious

i am sure they were brave patriots....

[DustyJoe]

32. sometimes they do

They fired the soldier that pushed down and punched the afghan official that had raped a young boy. Seems US military are not to intrude on afghan custom of homosexual pedophilic rape of children.

Way past time to get our men and women out of that prehistoric hellhole of allu-snackbar decadent, brutal murdering rapists. Let them stew in their traditions and culture by themselves.