Regardless of How Bad the Situation Is in Afghanistan, It Doesn't Mean that the Continuing Legacy of Donald Rumsfeld Can't Make It Worse
A few more bad apples? Highly recommended reading in the UK Independent:
A single American Special Forces group was behind at least three of Afghanistan's worst civilian casualty incidents, The Independent has learnt, raising fundamental questions about their ongoing role in the conflict.
Troops from the US Marines Corps' Special Operations Command, or MarSOC, were responsible for calling in air strikes in Bala Boluk, in Farah, last week - believed to have killed more than 140 men, women and children - as well as two other incidents in 2007 and 2008. News of MarSOC's involvement in the three incidents comes just days after a Special Forces expert, Lieutenant-General Stanley McChrystal, was named to take over as the top commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan. His surprise appointment has prompted speculation that commando counterinsurgency missions will increase in the battle to beat the Taliban.
MarSOC was created three years ago on the express orders of Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary at the time, despite opposition from within the Marine Corps and the wider Special Forces community. An article in the Marine Corps Times described the MarSOC troops as "cowboys" who brought shame on the corps.
You can read the entire article here:
Never heard of this Astral. Now I have a bad taste in my mouth and I must postpone dinner yet again for a couple hours.
Thank you for this info. It is new to me. Never heard of the Rummy connection.
May 16, 2009 6:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, sorry about messing up your dinner plans. This is the first I've seen about Rummy's Renegades as well, and it's intersting to see that the three major incidents of civilian casualities in Afghanistan all center around this one unit. I've seen nothing in the US press about it, leave it to the Brits to do the digging.
May 16, 2009 6:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now add this to cheney's assassination squad--per Hirsch and you have the good old one two puncherino.
May 16, 2009 7:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and Blackwater...and Halliburton...and KBR...I just saw a link on a Daily Kos dairy the other day called "Follow the Money". It laid out the big picture of all of Cheney's financial dealings in the early days of the Bush admin. Great stuff, but now I can't find it to blog about. damn.
May 16, 2009 8:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Outsourcing violence! What do they expect?
May 16, 2009 9:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess they thought they were outsourcing all accountability and responsibility as well. But that's what made a lot of Cheney's buddies and shareholders rich.
May 16, 2009 10:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
In the interest of fairness I'd like to know what good MarSOC has done, not just these few screwups.
I'm appalled that they were let off for killing 19 civilians and lying about having been shot at. Let's put that on Rumsfeld's resume.
May 17, 2009 3:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
Our country under Republican rule was run by criminals and insane bible thumping murderers. It is a fact.
Have mercy for Obama because large numbers of these people are still in influential positions in media like the Washington Post, DC thinktanks, the Pentagon, and the Republican Party.
Obama must deal with these nuts and the consequences of their zealotry, crimes and failures, while they attack him and his policies.
It is becoming increasingly clear investigations and prison terms are necessary. There are not enough jails in this nation for all the criminals who aided and abetted Bush/Cheney but at least some of the big fish need to stand trial.
The GQ magazine piece on Rumsfeld's creepy bible quotes on war photo/secret Presidential Reports in 2003 is astounding and revolting.
The Bishops who complain about a speech at Notre Dame should be crying blasphemy over the latest revelations in GQ, but their heads are up to their shoulders in the reproductive tracts of women they do not know and for whom they don't care or provide support.
May 17, 2009 2:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
It amazes me to see how many people have already turned on Obama. I guess they thought the change change was going to be radical and immediate? Thank the gods that our government can't be radically altered in an instant. It took Bush/Cheney a long time to get things as screwed up as they are now, and that was built on 12 years of the Reagan/Bush1 years.
May 17, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink