There is a reality no one seems to be inclined to discuss and that is the fact the NGOs are not providing information to the USA military as far as their locations and personnel in Afghanistan. Having that information would definitely put a pause and huge question mark over this deadly attack.
Before I go any further, let me say the relatives and friends have my complete sympathies for the people lost in this attack, especially the children. These are human lives lost and that is inexcusable for any free people that use military forces to secure their country.
The facts are plain this seems to be the best and most careful effort the USA mlitaray can put forward. There is no other method that has proven to do the job better. Realizing all that, is it safe to say this entire drone mess is a wet dream and not a real method of removing the enemy to secure the national security of the USA. We have drone pilots falling by the wayside with all sorts of emotional and mental disroders after they worked in this capacity with the USA military.
Now. This issue is the fault of a whole lot of people including the USA Military Industrial Complex that thrives on new ideas to kill people. The drone issue first started as a surveilance mechanism and someone somewhere decided that "Why don't we put bombs on them to kill the enemies we are seeing in surveilance. Like, why wait?" Wet dream. Not researched or validated to provide a solid knowledge base to the SAFE and CONCISE operation of the drone. They just cut it loose to kill and suffer the concequences afterward. What do generals say, "Our troops are not dying."
The future of surveillance in Afghanistan is going to change. Drone will be shot down so why send them at all? Right now as I write this the Taliban are torturing and killing Afghans THE TALIBAN BELIEVE are aprt of the resistence that would provide intelligence to the USA military, right or wrong.
The intelligence that the USA military receives will have to be through allies such as Pakistan, the country that housed Osama bin Laden for 15 years or so. The USA did not belong in Afghanistan and will never return. There is no reason to return to that country because the Afghan people and it's current government are not a direct threat to the USA. It will take a lot for that country to qualify as a threat again. It will have to do something worse than North Korea to fall into that category. Personally, I think the area will consolidate to form a EU type of alliance to combat Daesh and end any threat that will abolish the religion of Islam. There is a lot of that stuff that has been going on for a long time. Hezbollah, Syria, Iran the Shia Crescent and the rest, including the Saudi war with Yemen.
Before Americans go off half-cocked about improving the drone technology to spy on Afghanistan, the entire national security of the USA has to be assessed and the region of this country put into perspective. The BEST assault against the further governance of the Taliban is to shut down the POPPY culture and crops of that region. We know that the Haqquani Network was supporting the Taliban through opium sales. That has to stop.
As far as this drone strike and the intelligence that went into it, the entire paradyme of the drone is flawed. Grossly flawed and that has been the case since it was first introduced as a real solution to any problem the USA has. I might add, one of the most sophisticated drones in the fleet ended up crashing in Iran and Iran put it on display. Why did that happen? Because the USA military did reconnaissence in Iran when they had no right to do it. So, the tinker toys are a little to tempting to the commanders and the USA pays a whole lot of greenbacks for them. That incident also resulted in lost technology.
The drones are not going to be the answer. The USA State Department and mlitary need to work together to answer that dilemma. I have no further comment.
By Eric Schmitt
U.S. military officials have insisted (click here) since the last American troops withdrew from Afghanistan last month that they would be able to detect and attack Islamic State or Qaeda threats in the country from afar.
But an errant drone strike that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, in Kabul on Aug. 29 calls into question the reliability of the intelligence that will be used to conduct the operations.
U.S. commanders concede that the missions will be more difficult without a military presence in the country. But new details about the drone strike, which the Pentagon initially said was necessary to prevent an attack on American troops, show the limitations of such counterterrorism missions even when U.S. forces are on the ground.
“The U.S. has a terrible record in this regard, and after decades of failed accountability, in the context of the end of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. should acknowledge that their processes have failed, and that vital reforms and more independent outside scrutiny is vital,” John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in an email....
U.S. military officials have insisted (click here) since the last American troops withdrew from Afghanistan last month that they would be able to detect and attack Islamic State or Qaeda threats in the country from afar.
But an errant drone strike that killed 10 civilians, including seven children, in Kabul on Aug. 29 calls into question the reliability of the intelligence that will be used to conduct the operations.
U.S. commanders concede that the missions will be more difficult without a military presence in the country. But new details about the drone strike, which the Pentagon initially said was necessary to prevent an attack on American troops, show the limitations of such counterterrorism missions even when U.S. forces are on the ground.
“The U.S. has a terrible record in this regard, and after decades of failed accountability, in the context of the end of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. should acknowledge that their processes have failed, and that vital reforms and more independent outside scrutiny is vital,” John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said in an email....
