No side is above reproach
Let's get this straight, no side in this or any conflict is above reproach. The baseline difference is that here-today the Coalition, NATO-US forces do not deliberatly target civilians as a means of terror based coercion. Those who have faced battle understand that 30 seconds of combat is a very long time, within that time frame hundreds of actions take place, far faster than the average human can think. Reaction: the time it takes to squeeze a trigger; the speed of the bullet once it is fired is far faster than the time it takes to discern the difference between a non-uniformed insurgent and a non-combatant civilian. Once fired the bullet cannot be pulled back. Psychology: there is a thing called emotional contagion and terrain amplification, these affect everyone particularly in combat. Emotional contagion is a generally unanticipated response to tone of voice, facial expression or body language that illicits an involuntary empathic reaction and Terrain Amplification is the use of terrain (human and physical) to mask or amplify the strength of a military force, generally causing it to seem larger and more effective than it actually is. The goal of any good ambush. IED attack or guerilla force action is to combine terrain amplification and emotional contagion to increase the shock of an ambush or percieved ambush causing a negative emotional response to the ambushee increasing fear and over-reaction. -TROUFION
AP Story on Human Rights Watch: Rights group: Taliban targets civilians, By ALISA TANG, Associated
Press Writer
___The Taliban and other militant groups are committing war crimes by targeting Afghan civilians, killing nearly 700 last year, according to a report issued Monday by Human Rights Watch that also pointed to dramatically escalating violence since 2005.
The death toll caused by the Islamic groups is more than three times the civilian deaths attributed to U.S. and NATO forces, which have been criticized for excessive use of force in civilian areas.
In the latest suicide attack against the Western-backed government, a bomber in the relatively stable north struck a crowd of police on Monday, killing 10 and wounding 32.
The New York-based rights group said the number of suicide attacks spiked to 136 last year from 21 the previous year as the Taliban turned to increasingly indiscriminate, Iraq-style tactics. The surge in violence made 2006 "the deadliest year for civilians in Afghanistan since 2001," the report said....
On the Net: Human Rights Watch
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