Time out.
Obama pledges probe into fatal airstrike on Afghan hospital
Kabul - President Barack Obama has promised a full investigation into an apparent US air strike on an Afghan hospital that killed 19 people, a bombing which the UN said could amount to a war crime.
Doctors Without Borders said patients burned to death in their beds during a raid that continued for more than an hour early Saturday, even after US and Afghan authorities were informed the hospital had been hit.
"12 staff members and at least 7 patients, including 3 children, were killed; 37 people were injured," the charity said. "This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of international law."
The air raid came days after Taliban fighters seized control of the strategic northern city of Kunduz, in their most spectacular victory since being toppled from power by a US-led coalition in 2001.
Afghan forces, backed up by their NATO allies, claimed to have wrestled back control of the city.
But the defence ministry in Kabul said "a group of armed terrorists... were using the hospital building as a position to target Afghan forces and civilians".
The charity said that despite frantic calls to military officials in Kabul and Washington, the main building housing the intensive care unit and emergency rooms was "repeatedly, very precisely" hit almost every 15 minutes for more than an hour.
"The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round," said Heman Nagarathnam, DWB's head of programmes in northern Afghanistan.
"There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames.
"Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds."
US President Barack Obama offered his "deepest condolences" for what he called a "tragic incident"."The Department of Defense has launched a full investigation, and we will await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive judgement as to the circumstances of this tragedy," Obama said in a statement.
NATO earlier conceded US forces may have been behind the bombing, after its forces launched a strike which they said was intended to target militants.
"The strike may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility. This incident is under investigation," a statement said.
The incident has renewed concerns about the use of US air strikes in Afghanistan, a deeply contentious issue in the 14-year campaign against Taliban insurgents.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called for a full and transparent probe, noting: "an air strike on a hospital may amount to a war crime."
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Cinque: How many times before now have we heard about wedding parties being bombed in Afghanistan, resulting in the deaths of women and children? This is from a quick search:
And I just quit for the sake of expediency. Didn't we always have "deepest condolences"? Maybe not.
When the enemy you're fighting takes over a hospital, it's like they've taken all the people in the hospital (doctors, nurses, patients) as hostages.
Well, we've had plenty of hostage stand-offs in the United States, but I've never heard of one in which the police settled it by blowing up the entire building- perps, hostages, and all.
If we don't do that here, why are we doing it there? Is it because it's a war, and we think it's OK to do in a war? Is it because it's outside the US, and we think it's OK to do in foreign countries? Or is it just because the people involved are brown?
This was a deliberate attack. Our military knew they were attacking a hospital. Our military knew that non-combatants and innocents were going to be maimed and killed.
The Afghanistan War is now the longest war in US military history. It started because the Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin laden to the United States after 9/11. However, they did express a willingness to hand him over to a third country if he could be guaranteed a fair trial.
I say it's the longest war, but that's only officially. The Philippine-American War started immediately after the Spanish-American War in 1898 when we refused to grant the Philippines independence. Large-scale fighting between US forces and Philippine Revolutionary forces only lasted a few years, but insurgent strikes continued for decades until we finally granted independence, which didn't happen until 1946.
Do you think it's going to be any different in Afghanistan? It's not. As long as the US is there, the fighting will go on. We have as much chance of winning there as we had of winning in Vietnam.
In other words, there are only two choices: either permanent war or we get out.
In other words, there are only two choices: either permanent war or we get out.
And, in the meantime, we're blowing up wedding parties and hospitals.
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