Thursday, April 17, 2014

Contextualizing the story of US killing of Afghan civilians to death in the New York Times

Look how far the New York Times goes in order to justify the death of civilians by US strikes: "The American-led military coalition issued a statement saying that it was aware of the reports of civilian casualties, and that “we are looking into these allegations and will provide more information as available.”

The number of civilian deaths at the hands of coalition forces has been in rapid decline, in large part because conventional American troops rarely leave their bases anymore. Special Operations forces continue to conduct missions, typically alongside their Afghan counterparts, as advisers. On occasion, when overwhelmed by insurgent fire, they call in air support.

But even those airstrikes have grown rare, as coalition officials contend with an increasingly tough political landscape. Drone strikes have also contributed to civilian deaths, though the coalition says it scaled those back."