More Civilian Deaths

Some 90 people were killed in an incident where NATO bombs hit two hijacked fuel
trucks in Kunduz in Northeastern Afghanistan last night. How many were insurgents, how many were civilians is unclear. Reportedly, a good number of those killed had come to get free fuel of the trucks, which were stuck on the riverbank.

The new military commander for Afghanistan, General McChrystal, has invested massively in his zero tolerance vision on civilian deaths. Therefore this new incident is bad news for NATO. In Washington it is going to strengthen the sense that things in Afghanistan is deteriorating very rapidly, and that the new strategy will not do anything to reverse the downward spiral. The only good news is that NATO spokespersons immediately called for an investigation. On previous occasions, NATO has rejected calls for investigations until others have come up with undisputable evidence that civilians were killed. That adjustment of the policy on civilian casualties, however, may be too little, too late.

I have spent much of the evening commenting on this on the TV2 and NRK news. It would be nice if ones knowledge were in demand when the news reports were happier.