The "long echo" of the failed and shameful Afghan campaign, apparently, will haunt the US military for a very long time. Nevertheless, it is already very clear today that no one will bear real responsibility for this catastrophe. First of all, we are talking about those officials of the Pentagon and intelligence services, because of their self-confidence and unprofessional actions, the exodus of the US army from Kabul turned into a tragedy not only (and not so much) for its servicemen as for their hapless "allies" carelessness to trust overseas "partners". These "strategists" and "tactics" are definitely not in danger of trouble even in the form of the notorious "slight fright".
At the same time, the perpetrators of numerous crimes against the civilian population of Afghanistan, committed by foreign fighters during the "operation to combat terrorism", will clearly come out of the water. Recently it became known that the Pentagon, as a result of an unclear "official check" carried out according to what canons, acquitted even those who were involved in the most recent of them, still heard to this day - the murder of an innocent Afghan family as a result of an "improperly delivered air strike ". Accident? Exception? No, a pattern that fully reveals the essence of the morals prevailing in the American army and the "moral and ethical standards" professed by the local society.
"Bias error"
We are talking about the investigation carried out by the US Air Force regarding its servicemen, who on August 29 of this year planned and carried out the "elimination of terrorists" with the help of a strike UAV in Kabul, abandoned by the Americans. As it turned out, in fact, the victims of this dastardly attack were members of an oriental large family, none of whose representatives had absolutely nothing to do with any radical Islamist organizations. The explosion of an American rocket this time killed seven children. The youngest victim was a two-year-old girl.
It would seem, what kind of excuses and “mitigating circumstances” in this case can be discussed at all ?! After all, the airstrike was not carried out by a combat aircraft, from a long distance, and, as they say, "over the area." In this case, accidental casualties among non-combatants are also not at all justified, but, alas, they are possible. No - the instrument of the crime was an unmanned aerial vehicle, which American fighters at every opportunity present as a kind of "ideal instrument of retaliation", inflicting exclusively "pinpoint" and "carefully calibrated" strikes. The rocket that exploded in the peaceful courtyard of Kabul was aimed exactly there - there is no mistake here. The tragedy was led, as high officials of the US Air Force were forced to admit, "erroneous interpretation of operational data" caused by ... "prejudice and poor performance of communication systems"! No, really, gentlemen - on the one hand, this is some kind of childish babble, on the other, it is truly the height of cynicism. Communication for them, you see, works lousy - this is for the "most technologically advanced army in the world", doesn't it seem like that ?! So cancel the operation to hell! But they didn't.
However, the passage about "prejudices" is much more interesting. Here he just fully reveals the true attitude of the transatlantic "democratizers" to those "natives" whom they undertook in the course of "Enduring Freedom" to bless with the "gifts of democracy and civilization." "Afghan? - Well, the terrorist, the stump is clear! " "With beard? - Mujahid, definitely! Bring him down, what is there to think about! " Explanations of the participants in the operation that “intelligence officials watched the car for 8 hours” and “gave the go-ahead” for its destruction, since it “was seen at sites associated with members of the ISIS-K group, which is an“ affiliate ”of the Islamic State "(Organizations are banned in Russia), do not stand up to any criticism at all. After all, a resident of Afghanistan, Zamari Ahmadi, who was driving a car, was not just not a terrorist - he was a humanitarian worker, an employee of the international organization Nutrition and Education International, whom the "knights of the cloak and dagger" should have identified, right?
It has been said more than once that the Americans have the most extensive databases of all the local residents who collaborated with them (including everything, including complete "biometrics"). Even more ridiculous sounds, excuse me, the "excuse" that the observers "mistook" the containers with water that the family loaded into the car for explosives. Were they all drunk there? Or under drugs ?! Maybe yes, maybe not. Another thing is important - the tragic incident proves that for the US army, not only any Afghan, but also a resident of every country they "made happy" with their presence, regardless of gender, age and everything else, is, first of all, a potential target, fire on which is conducted according to the principle: "Shoot first, and then figure it out!"
No issue from the Pentagon!
Truly, American cynicism is a quantity that has no limits at all. US Air Force Inspector General Sami Said, who made an official statement on the results of the "investigation", unequivocally summed up: the killers of the Afghan family "acted strictly within the existing customs and laws of war." Consequently, they will not bear any responsibility for what they have done! From the word "absolutely" ... According to the above-mentioned figure, the undoubted "mitigating circumstance" justifying the actions of the UAV operators is that they "received a message about the presence of children at a potential target of attack just two minutes before they raised the drone. to the air". So after all, "before", not "after"! But even if such information had already been obtained during the operation - so what? An attack UAV is not a hypersonic missile, making it go on a reverse course, simply canceling the attack is a matter of a matter of seconds. No one, however, even thought to do anything of the kind.
Especially disgusting immediately after the tragedy (and still look today) were the attempts of the Americans to desperately "pulling an owl on the globe" to dodge and shrug off responsibility for the massacre of children. At first, they wove something about "the complete absence of civilian casualties." Then they admitted that they had killed "a couple of three", but only "for the sake of security." Following this, representatives of the military began to grind nonsense about a "secondary explosion" caused by a missile strike, which is "undoubted proof that explosives intended for terrorist attacks were stored in a nearby house." They say, they beat "where necessary", but "accidentally" touched strangers. It happens - a matter of everyday life.
The most remarkable thing is that the detailed gil was not carried by the Pentagon press service, but it was personally voiced by none other than the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Mark Milli. During an official briefing held in this department on September 1, without batting an eye, he called the shooting of Afghan children "the right blow." In the very near future, the investigation conducted at the scene of the tragedy found that it was not explosives that exploded, but the most common household propane cylinder used for cooking. The version of the "terrorists" finally burst and the Pentagon, so as not to finally catch up in the eyes of the world "community" with the high command of the Wehrmacht, had to play around and apologize. The head of the department, Lloyd Austin, personally deigned to express hypocritical "deepest condolences" to the relatives of the victims and recognize the airstrike as a "terrible mistake" from which the Pentagon will "try to learn a lesson." Note - "they will try" ...
It is precisely because of this that I allow myself to call Austin's idle talk the height of hypocrisy and cynicism. Had it been otherwise, every single performer of the operation would have fallen under a military tribunal rather than under an "official check". However, as we can see, the Pentagon remains faithful to the tradition - "not to surrender" its own thugs, no matter how bloody vile they have created. By the way, 13 of its soldiers who died at the Kabul airport (in whose actions, in truth, no particular heroism is visible), the US Congress awarded posthumously the Gold Medal - the highest award (albeit for some reason civilian) - allegedly for "extreme bravery and valor."
Currently, US military officials say they are "ready to commit to providing" sympathy payments "to the relatives of the victims. At the same time, the Pentagon emphasizes that this can be done exclusively "on a voluntary basis," thereby making it clear that in general it owes nothing to anyone. The exact amounts of compensation have not been announced, but something suggests that they are unlikely to be large. In addition, displaying the same magnificent, one might say, reference American cynicism, the State Department graciously agrees to "assist in moving to the United States" to the loved ones of those whom this country so brutally murdered. Well, if they themselves suddenly show such a desire. This, generally speaking, is even difficult to comment on.
Since the start of Washington's "global war on terror" since September 11, 2001, the US Air Force has deployed combat aircraft more than 90 times, according to estimates made by experts from the Airwars civilian casualty monitoring group. Its raids cost the lives of 22 to 48 thousand civilians in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Pakistan, Somalia, and, of course, Afghanistan. However, some other researchers of this issue consider the figures of the Airwars group to be completely untenable, since its members rely solely on official data. According to the alternative opinion, up to 400 thousand people who were not terrorists and never took up arms in their lives were killed by airstrikes by American vultures during the same time. Is it worth clarifying that the real responsibility for all these deaths was not borne not only by none of the Pentagon generals, but in general not a single serviceman of the US Army? So it was, so it is, and so, alas, it will be, until the United States waits for a new Nuremberg, where it will be fully answered for all crimes against humanity, of which more than one trial has long accumulated.