| KABUL (NNI): US commander in Afghanistan General David McKiernan has decided to take the information war to the Taliban in a bid to expose the false news that American and NATO troops are responsible for the rise in civilian casualties in that war ravaged landlocked country. According to CBS, the U.S. military says that the Taliban kills 80 percent of Afghan civilians. And they fight back with their own video. One video shows 14 children on their way to school, meeting a suicide bomber.
But there's huge frustration that any time the U.S. military is honest about its lethal mistakes, it is used against them.
"This interview will be leveraged by the Taliban. They will use it to say U.S. forces kill innocent civilians, when the truth is they do," General McKiernan says.
When confronted with the charge that both the NATO troops and the Taliban are responsible on this score, General McKiernan says: "We try to avoid it, the insurgent does it on purpose."
Up to 30,000 U.S. reinforcements are arriving in Afghanistan will bring the total international force to 70,000. So, violence is bound to escalate.
The danger is that Afghans will then be persuaded that American soldiers - not the Taliban - are the enemy.
"If we say, 'well, it's too hard,'" McKiernan said. "What is the solution to that? Just to stand back and let it become a failed state?" NNI |