Biden's tough response to Afghanistan defeat: Kill some kids

In a futile attempt to appear something less than weak and incompetent in the aftermath of the killing of 13 Americans troops just before the tail-betwee-the-legs withdrawal of US forces at the end of August, "President" Biden promised those responsible for the dastardly attack in Kabul, "We will hunt you down. We will make you pay." Watch the video, from 0:51 to the end.

   

Of course Sleepy Joe didn't name those responsible, but most of us wanted to believe that he (or those who pull his strings) had in mind the Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP - aka ISIS-K), named by AlJazeera as IS's affiliate in Afghanistan. Many of us, knowing Mr Biden's track record of saying much and delivering little, and knowing that US forces would be out of Afcrapistan in a matter of days, said, "Good luck!" 

Thus the Americans responsible for the debacle came immediately under the pressure of public opinion to Do Something, Fast. And so they did. We were told that although the US military was pulling out of the shithole, it still had "over-the-horizon" capability, meaning that it could blow up things animate and inanimate from the safety of a bunker in a neighbouring friendly country, such as... errr... 

On August 29th, the Pentagon announced that a drone strike, controlled from an undisclosed location, had succeeded in killing an ISIS-K militant loading his car with explosives in preparation for yet another attack on retreating Americans and their Afghan collaborators. The New York Times has extensive video coverage here. 

Sadly, the NYT videos are now he3adlines "Did a U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan Kill the Wrong Person?" The answer to their question is YES. Ten Afghan civilians, including seven children, died in the carnage shown in this picture. 

The drone strike sent a 20-pound Hellfire missile into the car of Zemari Ahmade, an aid worker. Military intelligence -- an oxymoron if ever there was one -- called the threat posed by the car "imminent", and defended the drone attack as a "righteous strike." 

Officials said the military believed the car was being packed with explosives for an attack. But footage obtained by the Times suggests Mr Ahmadi was actually loading the car with water containers for his home, where the water supply had been cut off. 

Mr Ahmadi was a 14-year employee of Nutrition & Education International, an American NGO that fights malnutrition. He helped start up soy factories, repair machinery, transport his colleagues and distribute food from his Corolla to displaced Afghans. 

The use of drones in counterterrorism operations has consistently been among the most controversial aspects of America's global war on terror, particularly due to their association with civilian casualties. 

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley have yet to appear before any Congressional committee to defend their roles in the Middle East mess. But it doesn't appear that they have any plans to stop raining down fire and brimstone from over the horizon. 

After all, children have been used as suicide bombers before, right? So the Pentagon may have been right after all. Who ya gonna believe -- the US military or the New York Times?