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2002-07-01 | 7:22 p.m.

In Afghanistan today, American military forces bombed a village. Officially, the U.S. military said American forces came under fire. "The Pentagon insisted the aircraft attacked a legitimate hostile target but suggested an errant bomb may have caused civilian casualties." That's from the AP story written by Charles Rex Arbogast.

Arbogast and his editors go to considerable effort to shine a flattering light on the U.S. military and its commanders, but Arbogast also makes it clear what really happened.

There was a wedding in an Afghan village called Kakarak. As the night wore on, wedding guests started firing celebratory rounds into the air. Arbogast tells us this is customary in rural Afghanistan, and of course it is customary in parts of the U.S., too. But this time, there were American helicopters nearby. How close, how far--none of that information is in the article. We do not know if the Americans ever felt threatened by this unexpected and, we can only assume, poorly executed "attack." All we know is that the Americans bombed the village for the next two hours.

Forty people confirmed dead, according to Arbogast, and seventy more injured. He anticipates that his numbers may be too conservative, so he quotes a nurse at the hospital as saying he understood 120 people had died.

Hospital officials said most of the dead and injured were women and children. One of the injured, a 6-year-old girl named Paliko, was brought to the hospital still wearing her party dress. Villagers said all members of her family were killed.

Another injured child, 7-year-old Malika, lost her mother, father, a brother and a sister, according to neighbors who brought her to the hospital.

One moment, you are a flower girl, and it's the best day ever. The next moment, you are an orphan, and if you survive your injuries, you will very likely end up as a street beggar, never to marry, and never to wear another party dress as long as you live.

And let's make no mistake about why this is happening. It's happening because the American public is angry, or was anyway, and wishes to show its strength with a military force that has been ordered to shoot first, ask questions later. We are a strong nation, with a very strong stomach for orphan-making.

Arbogast quotes Col. Roger King, spokesman for the U.S. military: "The United States expresses its deepest sympathies to those who have lost their loved ones." Prudently, Arbogast left off the rest of the comment, which appeared in the Reuters report published on the New York Times site: "Coalition military forces take extraordinary measures to protect against civilian casualties." Did you catch that? Coalition military forces take extraordinary measures to protect against civilian casualties. How does one respond to that? I guess we should be glad they were paying attention. One hates to imagine what we might expect from a less careful operation.

In conclusion, here's the boilerplate, courtesy of Reuters:

There have been several reports of the United States mistakenly attacking civilian targets in Afghanistan.

In May, the U.S. army rejected reports it had mistakenly attacked a wedding party after AIP reported that U.S. planes had pounded the village of Bul Khil in Khost province after mistaking traditional firing at a wedding for an attack.

One recent military investigation found that a U.S. fighter pilot did not follow procedures when he mistakenly bombed Canadian troops in Afghanistan in April, killing four soldiers and injuring eight.

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