InformationClearingHouse republished a Washington Post article under its own description: Petraeus: Afghans Burned Their Own Children
The article, in part copied below, is just one of many that have quoted comments monstrously callous of human life from the head of the U.S. Wehrmacht (defense force) deployed in Muslim countries.
They accompany the month-in-month-out self-righteous, sometimes boastful, usually prideful pronouncements of his commander-in-chief, President Obama, who praises occupation wars and bombings as necessary to the defense of America, and always without reference to horrendous loss of life to American and NATO military in multiple nations, which are without guilt for 9/11.
Petraeus's comments on coalition attack reportedly offend Karzai government
Washington Post, 2/21/11, by Joshua Partlow
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KABUL - To the shock of President Hamid Karzai's aides, Gen. David H. Petraeus suggested Sunday at the presidential palace that Afghans caught up in a coalition attack in northeastern Afghanistan might have burned their own children to exaggerate claims of civilian casualties, according to two participants at the meeting.
They said Petraeus, dismissed allegations by Karzai's office and the provincial governor that civilians were killed and said residents had invented stories, or even injured their children, to pin the blame on U.S. forces and force an end to the operation.
"I was dizzy. My head was spinning," said one participant, referring to Petraeus's remarks. "This was shocking. Would any father do this to his children? This is really absurd."
Petraeus, through a spokesman, declined to comment. ...
U.S. military officials said there is no evidence that civilians died. The governor of Konar, Fazlullah Wahidi, disagreed, citing reports from villagers that dozens of women and children perished. Karzai's office placed the civilian death toll at 50.
The key period involves five hours between Thursday night and Friday morning, during which Apache helicopters fired on suspected insurgents who had gathered to attack U.S. and Afghan troops, said Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, ... in Kabul.
... Smith said, surveillance drones tracked the fighters while the Apaches fired 30 mm Gatling guns, rockets and Hellfire missiles. "I have reviewed the footage and found no evidence women and children were among the fighters, again, no civilian structures were anywhere near where these engagements took place."
According to intercepted conversations, Smith said, insurgents discussed contacting government officials to tell them that civilians were being killed so that coalition helicopters could be stopped from firing. ...
Wahidi, the provincial governor, sent a three-person fact-finding team up the valley to the village of Helgal. They returned with seven injured people, ... Smith said they had burns and shrapnel wounds, none of them life-threatening. ...
"We have observed increased reporting of children being disciplined by having their hands and feet dipped into boiling water. No one is claiming this is the case in this instance, but it may well be."
Petraeus apparently had suggested something along these lines at the national security council meeting Sunday, remarks that "really bothered everyone," including Karzai, one participant said.
"He claimed that in the midst of the [operation] some pro-Taliban parents in contact with a government official decided to create a civilian casualty claim to pressure international forces to cease the [operation]. They burned hands and legs of some of their children and sent them to the hospital," a second participant said....
The Karzai government has repeatedly taken the U.S.-led coalition to task for killing noncombatants over the years.
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