No More ‘Collateral Damage’ in Afghan Attacks?

"In their deliberate targeting, the Air Force has all but eliminated civilian casualties in Afghanistan," Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst with Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times. "They have very effective collateral damage mitigation procedures."

He's referring to the increased use of aerial drones for verifying targets ... and the improving precision and decreasing size of U.S. missiles and bombs.

But when it comes to spur-of-the-moment air strikes the kind that are vital in combating elusive insurgent groups -- civilian and accidental deaths continue to mount. Just last week, nine Afghan police were killed in an errant U.S. air strike.

According to the United Nations, 698 civilians were killed in the first six months of this year, compared with 430 in the same period last year. The United Nations report said nearly two-thirds of the deaths this year resulted from actions by the Taliban and other insurgents. The remainder were attributed to actions by Afghan government, American or allied forces.

[ Photo: Daivd Axe ]

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Wired: Danger Room, David Axe, david_axe@hotmail.com ]

Bush says US to send more troops to Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Grappling with a record death toll in an overshadowed war, President Bush promised Wednesday to send more U.S. troops into Afghanistan by year’s end. He conceded that June was a “tough month,” in fact, the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the war began.

“One reason why there have been more deaths is because our troops are taking the fight to a tough enemy, an enemy who doesn’t like our presence there because they don’t like the idea of America denying safe haven (to terrorists),” Bush told reporters. “Of course there’s going to be resistance.”

READ MORE HERE [ Source: The Associated Press ]

Taliban win tactical success near Kandahar

By Jon Hemming

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The infiltration of hundreds of Taliban militants this week into an area close to Afghanistan’s second city was a tactical success for them and a setback for NATO, a NATO general said on Wednesday.

READ MORE HERE [ Source: Reuters ]

Canadian Workers Demand Immediate End to War in Afghanistan

On 29 May 2009, the delegates at the national convention of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), representing more than three million workers from every region of Canada and Quebec, voted overwhelmingly to demand that the Government of Canada immediately end its participation in the illegal war in Afghanistan.

This CLC demand represents a significant consolidation of labour power. Several national unions, notably the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) had already adopted policies to oppose Canada’s participation in the war in Afghanistan. However, some powerful unions whose members work in the rapidly expanding Canadian military and development industries could profit from continuing the war. The women and men of these unions made the difficult decision to stand in solidarity with the working people of Afghanistan rather than act on self-interest.

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