Afghans must have faith in deadly airstrike probe

Last week’s air attack by U.S. fighter jets that killed up to 70 people, including many civilians, is a major setback for the White House’s campaign to win the hearts and minds of the citizens of war-ravaged Afghanistan. Every time civilians die, the Taliban and other Islamic extremist groups are able to portray the United States and its allies as evil occupiers bent on destroying the country,

Of course that isn’t true, but most of the people of Afghanistan aren’t sophisticated enough to understand why their country has become ground zero for America’s war on global terrorism. All they see is that their lives aren’t getting any better than when the Taliban ruled with a theocratic iron fist.

President Obama and the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal, are right in their assessment that military action alone will not win over the populace.

NATO, which is leading the effort to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban and other extremists determined to overthrow the democratically elected government in Kabul, is now under the gun because of last week’s airstrike by U.S. fighters.

Not only must the organization reassure a suspicious citizenry that the investigation of the incident will be fair, open and honest, but it must also deal with a growing dispute between its two major participants, Germany and the United States.

Both countries are trying to deflect blame. It was the German commander’s decision to order the strikes, after he determined that two tanker trucks of fuel stolen by the Taliban “posed an acute threat to our soldiers.” German officials have said the tankers might have been used as suicide bombs.

Siphoning off gas

However, villagers of the northern province of Kunduz had gathered around the tankers to siphon off gas. When the bombs hit, they were killed.

U.S. commanders contend that Germany took an inordinate amount of time arriving on the scene after the strikes.

Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the top U.S. and NATO spokesman in the country, said German troops let too many hours pass before visiting the site. He explained that it’s important to hold the ground after a strike and determine what happened before the enemy comes out with its own version of events.

Gen. McChrystal visited the area Saturday where two charred trucks and yellow gas cans sat on a riverbed. He asked a top commander in Regional Command North about the response time.

“Why didn’t RC-North come here quicker?” McChrystal asked Col. George Klein, the commander of the German base in Kunduz.

German commanders watching images from the U.S. aircraft could see about 120 people around the fuel tankers, McChrystal said Saturday. The commanders decided that the people were militants and ordered the airstrikes, even though images provided by the U.S. aircraft would have been grainy and difficult to see.

Whether the German commanders or the U.S. pilots are at fault for any civilian casualties may turn into an inner-NATO tussle, the Associated Press reported Sunday.

It’s a tussle that could expose the dark side of the war in Afghanistan. But any attempt at a cover up will be more injurious to what America and its allies are trying to accomplish than the unvarnished truth about how decisions about military action are made at the highest level.

The situation in Afghanistan is so unstable today that the Taliban and its allies are making progress in reestablishing themselves in many parts of the country.

That’s bad news for the future of Afghanistan.