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No ‘misconduct or negligence’ in US drone strike on Afghan aid worker
that killed 7 children, Pentagon probe finds
3 Nov, 2021 19:00
The US airstrike that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, in August was not caused by misconduct or negligence, the Pentagon has found after an “independent review.” No disciplinary action has been recommended.
It was a communications breakdown rather than any sort of malice or ineptitude, Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami Said suggested in his review, the contents of which were relayed to Associated Press by a senior defense official. He clarified that the breakdown occurred in the process of identifying and confirming the target of the bombing and that, Said had concluded, it had occurred despite “prudent measures to prevent civilian deaths.”
How can a communications breakdown involving very high-tech systems like weaponized drones, and the lives of innocent adults and children, be anything other than ineptitude?
Whoever made the decision to launch the missile errored seriously and should suffer the consequences.
However, Said acknowledged that better communication between those involved in the decision to strike and “other support personnel” might have raised legitimate concerns about the bombing, even if they might not have prevented it.
Said's report seemingly exonerated the Pentagon of any and all responsibility for blowing up a 37-year-old employee of an American humanitarian NGO who was driving with nine members of his family. The report, which apparently has been endorsed by Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, also called for more to be done to prevent “confirmation bias.” Confirmation bias, in this case, would have led the strike team to cherry-pick the data that supported team members' collective suspicions that the occupant of the car was an Islamic State terrorist.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, patted himself on the back for several days following what the Pentagon called a “righteous strike.” That is, until it was learned that the driver, Zemari Ahmadi, had been working as an electrical engineer for the US-based aid group Nutrition and Education International for more than a decade. At the time of his death, he was carrying water jugs to his employer’s Kabul office, where he was supposed to pick up a laptop, the group has confirmed.
I wonder if Milley will still profess a righteous strike when he stands before God on that day.
As I have written many times, it is almost always children who pay for the madness of men!
Biden ready to change US nuclear weapons policy – reports
3 Nov, 2021 17:13
© Reuters / Michael Peterson
The Biden administration is reportedly considering a revision to US nuclear doctrine, with national security officials said to be debating whether to declare that the “sole purpose” of its atomic stockpile is deterrence.
The National Security Council is holding a series of inter-agency meetings this month regarding changes to the US’ “nuclear posture,” according to the Washington Post. Unnamed officials told the paper a new nuclear policy would be announced in early 2022.
President Joe Biden is said to be in favor of the revision, which would narrow the circumstances in which the US would use nuclear weapons. If ratified, they would be used only to deter a direct attack or retaliate after a strike. During his campaign for the presidency in 2020, Biden expressed his support for a ‘sole purpose’ declaration and pledged to put it into practice.
Near the end of his stint as vice-president in 2017, Biden commented that it would be “hard to envision a plausible scenario” in which the first use of nuclear weapons by the US would either “be necessary” or “make sense.”
Although the Obama administration flirted with making that declaration, it did not ultimately do so, while, in 2018, the Trump administration rejected both the ‘sole purpose’ and ‘no first use’ doctrines. Under the latter policy, the US would pledge not to preemptively use nuclear weapons in a conflict.
While progressive politicians and non-proliferation advocates have urged Biden to declare an explicit ‘no first use’ policy, he hasn’t indicated that he supports any such promise. Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers and key US allies alike have warned against making any modifications that would remove decades of intentional ambiguity over the country’s threshold for nuclear weapons use.
“[The] ‘sole purpose’ nuclear policy is just ‘no first use’ by another name, and to even consider adopting either is a complete betrayal of our allies,” James Risch (R-Idaho), the most senior GOP member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Financial Times. Writing in Defense News, he noted that such policy changes “scare our friends, encourage our adversaries, and damage the very nonproliferation goals it claims to advance.”
The questionnaire on amending US nuclear policy the White House sent to allies earlier this year received an “overwhelmingly negative” response, according to the Financial Times, with an unnamed European official saying any changes would be a “huge gift to Russia and China.”
The proposed new policy would be “soul crushing” to allies and partners, another unnamed source told the paper, adding that there was “genuine concern” over how much more allies “can take,” after the US’ chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and issues concerning the Nord Stream 2 Russia-Germany gas pipeline.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Washington’s decision, back in 2019, to pull out of a Cold War-era nuclear weapons deal could lead to escalating tensions and spark a “new arms race.” Asked about nuclear weapons, he said the threat of mutual destruction remained.
Earlier this year, Putin signed a decree approving Russia’s policy of keeping nuclear weapons at a “sufficient level to ensure deterrence” so as to guarantee the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state.” It said Moscow viewed nuclear weapons as “a means of deterrence” and that their use would be an “extreme forced measure.”
Ukraine appoints former neo-Nazi paramilitary leader
to senior army advisory role
3 Nov, 2021 10:58
The former leader of Ukrainian fascist paramilitary group ‘Right Sector’, known for its far-right views, has been appointed to the role of adviser to the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces, he reported on Tuesday.
Dmitry Yarosh announced his new job on Facebook.
“By order of Lieutenant-General Valeriy Zaluzhny, I have been appointed adviser to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Thank you for your trust! Together we will win!” he wrote.
Right Sector was created in 2013 as a confederation of several radical nationalist groups during the violent, Western-backed Maidan protests in Kiev. One of the founding groups of the organization was Tryzub, a paramilitary group started by the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, a political party that idolizes Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera. As head of Tryzub, Yarosh was chosen to be the leader of Right Sector.
This group came to prominence in 2014, when its members were involved in violent clashes with law enforcement officers. It is also suspected of being behind the 2014 Odessa Massacre, in which more than 40 people were killed in a fire at the city’s House of Trade Unions.
The group has also been accused of anti-Semitism. According to an article by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board, later republished by the UN Refugee Agency’s Refworld, Right Sector was implicated in an incident “in which graffiti depicting swastikas was painted on tombs in a Jewish cemetery.” The organization denied the accusation.
Following the events of the Maidan, when violent street protests toppled a democratically elected government, the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in east Ukraine unilaterally declared their independence from Kiev. In response, Right Sector took up arms, forming a volunteer battalion to fight against separatists.
Nowadays, Yarosh is known for his view that Ukraine should escalate the war in Donbass and even suggested launching grenades at the building of opposition-leaning TV channel 112, located in the center of the capital.
The neo-fascist paramilitary leader, who also served a term as an MP, is known for being strongly anti-Russian and has regularly echoed the belief of the authorities in Kiev that Moscow is in control of the separatists in the Donbass. In 2019, Yarosh claimed that the Kremlin plans to destroy Ukraine by 2024 and called for an intensification of combat operations in Donbass to neutralize “collaborationist pro-Moscow forces.”
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