STILL LOSING HEARTS & MINDS IN AFGHANISTAN

We have a long history of bombing civilians in Afghanistan and I suppose "Bomb, bomb, bomb" McCain isn't too troubled by this but it does us tremendous harm in our fight against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Civilian Airstrike Deaths Probed
78 Have Died in Three Incidents This Month Alone, Afghan Officials Say
By Candace Rondeaux
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 25, 2008; Page A12

KABUL -- U.S. and NATO military officials in Afghanistan have launched investigations into three separate U.S.-led airstrikes that Afghan officials say killed at least 78 civilians this month.

In the first six months of this year, the number of civilians killed in fighting has increased by nearly 40 percent over the same period last year, according to U.N. data.

More than half of those killed in the three recent U.S.-led airstrikes -- which occurred in a three-week span in three provinces in eastern and western Afghanistan -- were women and children, according to Afghan and Western officials. In one case, about 47 women and children in a wedding party were killed.

Just like Iraq, Afghanistan is the scene of Bush regime incompetence:

Sending more troops to Afghanistan could backfire, experts warn
By Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Friday, July 25, 2008

More foreign troops, however, would do little than turn more war-weary Afghans against U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai if they aren't part of a broader and more effective counter-insurgency strategy, some experts and U.S. officials warned.

"There is not one strategy with one person in charge," complained a U.S. defense official who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly. "If we had asked the Taliban to draw an organizational chart for allied forces in Afghanistan, they would have drawn this one."

A more coherent approach, they said, would streamline the U.S. and NATO chains of command, end restrictions that some allies place on their soldiers and use force far more judiciously to reduce civilian casualties.

There also must be better coordination between military and international reconstruction efforts so that more Afghans see benefits in their daily lives, experts and U.S. officials agreed.

In addition, Karzai's government requires more help — and more pressure — to deliver basic services to its impoverished people, build competent police and reform the dysfunctional legal system. It must also do much more to root out corruption, especially among senior officials profiting from the world's largest opium crop, the experts said.