NATO apologizes to win ‘hearts and minds’
April 21st, 2010 § 2 Comments
According to The New York Times, NATO has ‘apologized’ for murdering 4 unarmed Afghan civilians (including one 12-year-old boy and a police officer) earlier this week in Khost Province.
Four more Afghan civilians were also shot dead and 18 others injured earlier this month when NATO forces opened fire on a civilian bus in the Zhari district of the southern province of Kandahar.
When US General Stanley McChrystal became the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, he announced plans to revise their strategy in Afghanistan by implementing policies designed to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Afghan people. While a UN report indicates that civilian deaths were on the rise in 2009 and that NATO was not responsible for the majority of Afghan civilians deaths during that year, it adds that NATO “airstrikes remain responsible for the largest percentage of civilian deaths attributed to PGF during the first six months of 2009.”
Ongoing incidents of civilian murder continue to increase hostility among the Afghan population against NATO’s occupying presence. Whether it’s one murder or a thousand, a suicide bombing or NATO forces opening fire on a group of Afghan civilians, recent Afghan memory is permeated with the loss of fellow citizens due to NATO’s ongoing occupation of their land.
Earlier this month US forces also admitted a ‘role’ in the cover-up murder of 5 Afghan civilians (including 2 pregnant women and one teenage girl) during a night raid in February. An apology and thorough investigation results have yet to be released by NATO forces for this particular case.
The recent coverage of civilian murders by NATO forces has emerged just before NATO’s next planned major offensive in Kandahar.
[...] NATO apologizes to win ‘hearts and minds’ “ P U L S E By Jasmin Ramsey When US General Stanley McChrystal became the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, he announced plans to revise their strategy in Afghanistan by implementing policies designed to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Afghan … pulsemedia.org/2010/04/21/nato-apologizes-to-win-hearts-and-minds/ [...]
[...] NATO apologizes to win ‘hearts and minds’ “ P U L S E By Jasmin Ramsey When US General Stanley McChrystal became the commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, he announced plans to revise their strategy in Afghanistan by implementing policies designed to win the ‘hearts and minds’ of the Afghan … pulsemedia.org/2010/04/21/nato-apologizes-to-win-hearts-and-minds/ [...]