Thursday, 05 May 2016 06:49
Cowardice and Exoneration in Kunduz
(Photo: BattleSpartan)ROBERT C. KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
"The people are being reduced to blood and dust. They are in pieces."
The doctor who uttered these words still thought the hospital itself was a
safe zone. He was with Doctors Without Borders, working in Kunduz,
Afghanistan, where the Taliban and government forces were engaged in hellish
fighting and civilians, as always, were caught in the middle. The wounded,
including children, had been flowing in all week, and the staff were
unrelieved in their duties, working an unending shift.
Their week ended at 2 a.m. last Oct. 3 when -- as the world knows -- a U.S.
AC-130 gunship began strafing the hospital, the crew apparently acting on
the mistaken belief that this was a Taliban compound. The strike lasted for
an hour, continuing even though the humanitarian organization contacted the
Pentagon and pleaded that it stop.
A total of 211 shells hit the hospital. The Intensive Care Unit was wiped
out. Every patient in the unit except for a 3-year-old girl was killed, some
burning to death in their beds. A total of 42 people -- patients, staff and
doctors -- died because of this lethal mistake.
One of the dead was Dr. Osmani, the young doctor quoted above, who had just
begun ophthalmology training in Kabul but still worked at the MSF facility
in Kunduz on weekends, according to an eyewitness account by Kathleen
Thomas, another doctor there, an Australian, who survived.
"Our colleagues didn't die peacefully like in the movies," she wrote last
month in The Guardian. "They died painfully, slowly, some of them screaming
out for help that never came, alone and terrified, knowing the extent of
their own injuries and aware of their impending death. Countless other staff
and patients were injured; limbs blown off, shrapnel rocketed through them,
burns, pressure-wave injuries of the lungs, eyes and ears. Many of these
injures have left permanent disability. It was a scene of nightmarish horror
that will be forever etched in my mind."
Some mistake.
This is all news again, of course, because the U.S. government, having
investigated the incident, has just released a 3,000-page, mostly classified
report, uh, exonerating itself. This comes as no surprise.
Well, it admitted the bombing was an unfortunate mistake and 16 military
personnel involved in the incident have received"administrative actions" as
punishment. Also, since the tragedy, the U.S. has made "condolence payments"
to the victims: $6,000 to families of the dead, $3,000 to the injured.
It seems to me all this requires a moment or two of profound silence, as we
try to absorb both the tragedy and the absurdity of these events, which
unite in a sort of horrific shrug of indifference to the predictable
consequences of war.
The New York Times, for instance, informs us: "Still, the release of the
investigation's findings and the announcement of the disciplinary measures
were unlikely to satisfy Doctors Without Borders and other human rights
groups, whichon Fridayreiterated their calls for an independent criminal
investigation."
Of course Doctors Without Borders will not be "satisfied" with these
findings, as though, my God, any finding or any action whatsoever by the
U.S. military -- gosh, the payout of six grand per dead Afghan or the stern
punishment of a few scapegoats -- could bring balance and resolution to the
horrorKathleen Thomas describes.Just the use of that word -- "satisfied" --
trivializes the infliction of suffering, whether intentional or merely
recklessly accidental, beyond comprehension.
But this is the language of war, as spoken by those who wage it and those
who uncritically report it: a language of implicit moral relativism.
The same Times story, describing the report's account of what happened,
explained: "The aircrew appeared to be confused by the directions from the
Americans on the ground in the minutes leading up to the attack. At one
point, the crew was told it would need to hit a second target after the
strike it was about to commence, and 'we will also be doing the same thing
of softening the target for partner forces,' that is, Afghans."
This is the reality: An action that wound up killing 42 hospital workers and
patients -- men, women and children, some of whom were burned alive in their
beds -- was instigated in order to "soften the target" . . . which is
nothing less than linguistic exoneration of murder. Or rather,
pre-exoneration.
And this is war. This is what the United States allots 54 percent of its
annual discretionary spending -- some $600 billion -- to perpetuate. I'm
quite certain this money would be unspendable, and the game called war would
be unplayable, if it weren't for the linguistic pre-exoneration that removes
all humanity from those who will die (think: collateral damage) and all
responsibility from those who will kill.
But with the exoneration solidly in place, anything goes. Every side in war
plays with the instruments of hell. The Times also recently reported that
the war zone hospitals everywhere are more vulnerable than they've ever been
and the "rules of war" seem to be in tatters.
Maybe this is because war can't be contained by "rules."
For instance, not only have there been six attacks on hospitals in Aleppo,
Syria -- perpetrated by both government and rebel forces -- in the past
week, but also: "In 11 of the world's war zones, between 2011 and 2014, the
International Committee of the Red Cross tallied nearly 2,400 acts of
violence against those who were trying to provide health care. That works
out to two attacks a day."
What might "satisfy" Doctors Without Borders or the maimed and grieving
victims of the Kunduz tragedy? In my view, nothing less than an American
commitment to global demilitarization.
This is called atonement.
Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally
syndicated writer. Contact him at koehlercw@xxxxxxxxx or visit his website
at commonwonders.com.
C 2016 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, INC.
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Thursday, 05 May 2016 06:49
Cowardice and Exoneration in Kunduz
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(Photo: BattleSpartan)ROBERT C. KOEHLER FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT
"The people are being reduced to blood and dust. They are in pieces."
The doctor who uttered these words still thought the hospital itself was a
safe zone. He was with Doctors Without Borders, working in Kunduz,
Afghanistan, where the Taliban and government forces were engaged in hellish
fighting and civilians, as always, were caught in the middle. The wounded,
including children, had been flowing in all week, and the staff were
unrelieved in their duties, working an unending shift.
Their week ended at 2 a.m. last Oct. 3 when -- as the world knows -- a U.S.
AC-130 gunship began strafing the hospital, the crew apparently acting on
the mistaken belief that this was a Taliban compound. The strike lasted for
an hour, continuing even though the humanitarian organization contacted the
Pentagon and pleaded that it stop.
A total of 211 shells hit the hospital. The Intensive Care Unit was wiped
out. Every patient in the unit except for a 3-year-old girl was killed, some
burning to death in their beds. A total of 42 people -- patients, staff and
doctors -- died because of this lethal mistake.
One of the dead was Dr. Osmani, the young doctor quoted above, who had just
begun ophthalmology training in Kabul but still worked at the MSF facility
in Kunduz on weekends, according to an eyewitness account by Kathleen
Thomas, another doctor there, an Australian, who survived.
"Our colleagues didn't die peacefully like in the movies," she wrote last
month in The Guardian. "They died painfully, slowly, some of them screaming
out for help that never came, alone and terrified, knowing the extent of
their own injuries and aware of their impending death. Countless other staff
and patients were injured; limbs blown off, shrapnel rocketed through them,
burns, pressure-wave injuries of the lungs, eyes and ears. Many of these
injures have left permanent disability. It was a scene of nightmarish horror
that will be forever etched in my mind."
Some mistake.
This is all news again, of course, because the U.S. government, having
investigated the incident, has just released a 3,000-page, mostly classified
report, uh, exonerating itself. This comes as no surprise.
Well, it admitted the bombing was an unfortunate mistake and 16 military
personnel involved in the incident have received"administrative actions" as
punishment. Also, since the tragedy, the U.S. has made "condolence payments"
to the victims: $6,000 to families of the dead, $3,000 to the injured.
It seems to me all this requires a moment or two of profound silence, as we
try to absorb both the tragedy and the absurdity of these events, which
unite in a sort of horrific shrug of indifference to the predictable
consequences of war.
The New York Times, for instance, informs us: "Still, the release of the
investigation's findings and the announcement of the disciplinary measures
were unlikely to satisfy Doctors Without Borders and other human rights
groups, whichon Fridayreiterated their calls for an independent criminal
investigation."
Of course Doctors Without Borders will not be "satisfied" with these
findings, as though, my God, any finding or any action whatsoever by the
U.S. military -- gosh, the payout of six grand per dead Afghan or the stern
punishment of a few scapegoats -- could bring balance and resolution to the
horrorKathleen Thomas describes.Just the use of that word -- "satisfied" --
trivializes the infliction of suffering, whether intentional or merely
recklessly accidental, beyond comprehension.
But this is the language of war, as spoken by those who wage it and those
who uncritically report it: a language of implicit moral relativism.
The same Times story, describing the report's account of what happened,
explained: "The aircrew appeared to be confused by the directions from the
Americans on the ground in the minutes leading up to the attack. At one
point, the crew was told it would need to hit a second target after the
strike it was about to commence, and 'we will also be doing the same thing
of softening the target for partner forces,' that is, Afghans."
This is the reality: An action that wound up killing 42 hospital workers and
patients -- men, women and children, some of whom were burned alive in their
beds -- was instigated in order to "soften the target" . . . which is
nothing less than linguistic exoneration of murder. Or rather,
pre-exoneration.
And this is war. This is what the United States allots 54 percent of its
annual discretionary spending -- some $600 billion -- to perpetuate. I'm
quite certain this money would be unspendable, and the game called war would
be unplayable, if it weren't for the linguistic pre-exoneration that removes
all humanity from those who will die (think: collateral damage) and all
responsibility from those who will kill.
But with the exoneration solidly in place, anything goes. Every side in war
plays with the instruments of hell. The Times also recently reported that
the war zone hospitals everywhere are more vulnerable than they've ever been
and the "rules of war" seem to be in tatters.
Maybe this is because war can't be contained by "rules."
For instance, not only have there been six attacks on hospitals in Aleppo,
Syria -- perpetrated by both government and rebel forces -- in the past
week, but also: "In 11 of the world's war zones, between 2011 and 2014, the
International Committee of the Red Cross tallied nearly 2,400 acts of
violence against those who were trying to provide health care. That works
out to two attacks a day."
What might "satisfy" Doctors Without Borders or the maimed and grieving
victims of the Kunduz tragedy? In my view, nothing less than an American
commitment to global demilitarization.
This is called atonement.
Robert Koehler is an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist and nationally
syndicated writer. Contact him at koehlercw@xxxxxxxxx or visit his website
at commonwonders.com.
C 2016 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, INC.
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