• Nine Afghan boys collecting firewood killed by NATO helicopters
    233 replies, posted
[quote]KABUL, Afghanistan — Nine boys collecting firewood to heat their homes in the eastern Afghanistan mountains were killed by NATO helicopter gunners who mistook them for insurgents, according to a statement on Wednesday by NATO, which apologized for the mistake. The boys, who were 9 to 15 years old, were attacked on Tuesday in what amounted to one of the war’s worst cases of mistaken killings by foreign-led forces. The victims included two sets of brothers. A 10th boy survived. The NATO statement, which included an unusual personal apology by the commander of the NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus, said the boys had been misidentified as the attackers of a NATO base earlier in the day. News of the attack enraged Afghans and led to an anti-American demonstration on Wednesday in the village of Nanglam, where the boys were from. The only survivor, Hemad, 11, said his mother had told him to go out with other boys to collect firewood because “the weather is very cold now.” “We were almost done collecting the wood when suddenly we saw the helicopters come,” said Hemad, who, like many Afghans, has only one name. “There were two of them. The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round they hovered over us and started shooting. They fired a rocket which landed on a tree. The tree branches fell over me and shrapnel hit my right hand and my side.” The tree, Hemad said, saved his life by covering him so that he could not be seen by the helicopters, which, he said, “shot the boys one after another.” General Petraeus pledged to investigate the attack and to take disciplinary action if appropriate. “We are deeply sorry for this tragedy and apologize to the members of the Afghan government, the people of Afghanistan and, most importantly, the surviving family members of those killed by our actions,” he said. “These deaths should have never happened.” It was the third instance in two weeks in which the Afghan government has accused NATO of killing civilians. NATO strongly disputes one of those reports, but another — the killing of an Afghan Army soldier and his family in Nangarhar Province on Feb. 20 — was also described as an accident.[/quote] source: [url]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/03/world/asia/03afghan.html[/url] welp
How the fuck did fucking helicopter gunners with high resolution gun cams manage a fuck-up this colossal?
Holy shit, I can understand if they accidentally Think the 15 year old ones were Insurgents (Still bloody wrong) But to mistaken a 9 year old for one? how the hell did they fuck up that hard?
Oh that's fucking pathetic. I mean, it's wood. It doesn't look like a gun.
We need to just jump ship. You can't force the ideals of a democracy on these guys anyways. We are making too many mistakes over there. I wish the US government would just admit they fucked up, and pull all the troops home.
"Woops, sorry about that."
don't they first request permission to fire? they just want to fire, someone gave them the permission I suppose.
That makes me really sad
[QUOTE=hegrec;28399800]We need to just jump ship. You can't force the ideals of a democracy on these guys anyways. We are making too many mistakes over there. I wish the US government would just admit they fucked up, and pull all the troops home.[/QUOTE] You know the UK invaded too. And Germany. And Poland. And Turkey. And many others.
slightly related to the subject [url]http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9f6_1299131696[/url] Shows afghan children playing suicide bomber
[QUOTE=Pantz76;28400331]You know the UK invaded too. And Germany. And Poland. And Turkey. And many others.[/QUOTE] Mostly the United States though.
[QUOTE=hegrec;28399800]We need to just jump ship. You can't force the ideals of a democracy on these guys anyways. We are making too many mistakes over there. I wish the US government would just admit they fucked up, and pull all the troops home.[/QUOTE] There's no word that they were American Helicopters. They could have belonged to any NATO Member operating in the region.
I guess HeMad at NATO now.
[QUOTE=Pantz76;28400331]You know the UK invaded too. And Germany. And Poland. And Turkey. And many others.[/QUOTE] But WHO Started it in the first place? Hint: it starts with a [i]U[/i]
[QUOTE=Van-man;28400497]But WHO Started it in the first place? Hint: it starts with a [i]U[/i][/QUOTE] Ughanda or Uzbekistan
[QUOTE=Van-man;28400497]But WHO Started it in the first place? Hint: it starts with a [i]U[/i][/QUOTE] U.
Hearts and minds, people, that's why we're there. We're winning their hearts by blowing up their kids.
God damn :saddowns:
[QUOTE=Jon27;28400567]Hearts and minds, people, that's why we're there. We're winning their hearts by blowing up their kids.[/QUOTE] Well, they should know that it wouldn't work in the first place.
[img]http://www.homesandgardenjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/firewood.jpg[/img] Clearly an Ak47 if ever i've seen one. Do these guys even receive target recognition training?
This is a tragedy without a doubt, but you shouldn't judge the pilots before you've heard the whole story. I doubt these people go through years of training to be known internationally as baby killers. It's easy to be offended when you're sitting behind a desk, miles away with only a vague recount of what happened, but I can assure you that this wasn't just one guy going "Hey Jim, let's take out those kids collecting firewood, it'll be hilarious!"
I can understand how it may look like an IED or possible rocket tube (they point them at the roads to hit the side of convoys and such) but.. I really don't get how you can fucking mistake it that bad. I know that they don't have the super targeting equipment (like what the jets I work on have) but holy shit at least confirm your target. But it's not like they went "Oh boy! Kids to shoot!". They had intel that they were the ones that performed an attack earlier. They engaged accordingly.. and this happened. Although tragic, people seem to forget it is war. I by no means am saying this is acceptable action, and I hope the troops are disciplined.. But we have done some good.. and some bad. We do need to get out either way. I also talk to pilots on a mostly regular basis. They are not cold-hearted killers, and they don't treat this as a game or something. I wish people understood this more instead of sitting on their couch reading news headlines and don't bother with anything more then that. Then their opinions get so screwed up that it just goes downhill.
I know I should feel emotion over this due to the nature of the situation, but in all honesty, people make mistakes. Shit happens, we do not even know all the details. We do not know if it happened at night, or if dust/other obstructing objects blocked parts of them out and confused the NATO troops into thinking they were insurgents. Though, I am pretty sure you have to confirm the target and there were two helicopters.
even though it is very sad,people are overreacting about it too much
[QUOTE=Dr Magnusson;28400846]This is a tragedy without a doubt, but you shouldn't judge the pilots before you've heard the whole story. I doubt these people go through years of training to be known internationally as baby killers. It's easy to be offended when you're sitting behind a desk, miles away with only a vague recount of what happened, but I can assure you that this wasn't just one guy going "Hey Jim, let's take out those kids collecting firewood, it'll be hilarious!"[/QUOTE] Read the thread. No one said the pilots did it intentionally, but rather how foolish and eager they acted in order to finally open fire and kill people. [quote]“There were two of them. The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round they hovered over us and started shooting. [/quote] That should be enough time to confirm what the targets are.
[QUOTE=Matrix374;28400986]even though it is very sad,people are overreacting about it too much[/QUOTE] Yeah we totally shouldn't react about children being murdered
[QUOTE=Hamm0;28400534]U.[/QUOTE] USSR? UAE? Seriously get more specific.
This sucks man, especially if the pilot/gunner were just bored.
[QUOTE=Matrix374;28400986]even though it is very sad,people are overreacting about it too much[/QUOTE] Yeah I mean it was only nine innocent children, who cares.
[QUOTE=Daedulas;28399759]Holy shit, I can understand if they accidentally Think the 15 year old ones were Insurgents (Still bloody wrong) But to mistaken a 9 year old for one? how the hell did they fuck up that hard?[/QUOTE] If you think THIS is fucked up you need to hear why they'd think that. Insurgents can and do train children as young as 8 to run into targeted places with bombs strapped to them. [url]http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2010/03/28/2010-03-28_taliban_schools_teach_kids_the_abcs_of_terror.html[/url] [url]http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/02/taliban-buying-children-to-serve-as-suicide-bomber/[/url]
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