Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumNato’s bombs fall like confetti, not containing conflict but spreading it
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/oct/06/nato-bombs-conflict-syria-isis-iraq-afghanistanSyria, Isis, Iraq there are no easy solutions. But killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan and elsewhere draws more people into insurgencies
Natos bombs fall like confetti, not containing conflict but spreading it
George Monbiot
Tuesday 6 October 2015 13.47 EDT
The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This is how an anonymous Nato spokesperson described Saturdays disaster in Afghanistan. Lets translate it into English. We bombed a hospital, killing 22 people. But people, hospital and bomb, let alone we: all such words are banned from Natos lexicon. Its press officers are trained to speak no recognisable human language.
The effort is to create distance: distance from responsibility, distance from consequences, distance above all from the humanity of those who were killed. They do not merit even a concrete noun. Whatever you do, do not create pictures in the mind.
Collateral damage and nearby also suggest that the destruction of the hospital in Kunduz was a side-effect of an attack on another target. But the hospital, run by Médecins Sans Frontières, was the sole target of this bombing raid, by a US plane that returned repeatedly to the scene, dropping more ordnance on a building from which staff and patients were trying to escape. Curiously, on this occasion, Nato did not use that other great euphemism of modern warfare, the surgical strike though it would, for once, have been appropriate.
Shoot first, suppress the questions later. The lies and euphemisms add insult to the crime. Natos apparent indifference to life and truth could not fail to infuriate perhaps to radicalise people who are currently uninvolved in conflict in Afghanistan.
--
We are now fourteen years into our Afghanistan occupation.
Republicans urge us to stay until the job is done. WHAT'S THE FUCKING JOB?
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
2 replies, 472 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (3)
ReplyReply to this post
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Nato’s bombs fall like confetti, not containing conflict but spreading it (Original Post)
unhappycamper
Oct 2015
OP
The plane returned repetadtly to bomb a building with a giant Red Cross symbol?
Fred Sanders
Oct 2015
#1
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)1. The plane returned repetadtly to bomb a building with a giant Red Cross symbol?
The Pentagon is lying and lying and lying and squirming....crimes were committed and crimes are now bein covered up by propaganda and lies...which are the other bombs the Pentagon drops all the time.
I believe the doctors over the generals.
unhappycamper
(60,364 posts)2. Yup.