Military/academic reaction to radical groups/biased news?

[jmm99]

from yami...
When I was reading Gen. Petraeus's statement on the Centcom website, he stated that 3 Afghan civilians got beheaded when denying the Taliban aid in a village. After the beheadings, the Afghan security forces then called on US forces for support. And I think then the Taliban kept Afghan civilians as hostages inside houses when US airstrikes occured.

Both the beheadings and hostage use (if evidenced - not always that easy) are war crimes. They are also typical of the AQ-Taliban way of war - they have their own LOAC (Law of Armed Conflict). You can verify that via many sources on and off line. For a quick overview, see at SWJ, The Erosion of Noncombatant Immunity within Al Qaeda.

Since its inception, al Qaeda’s treatment of noncombatant immunity has migrated from full observance to complete disregard. In just over a decade, al Qaeda transitioned from basing entire operations on the inviolable nature of noncombatant immunity to specifically targeting noncombatants. From 1991 until 2002, al Qaeda evolved through five distinct phases in its observance of noncombatant immunity. These phases transition from Phase One’s complete respect for noncombatants to Phase Five’s intentional targeting of millions of noncombatants with weapons of mass destruction. More recently, however, al Qaeda appears to be taking stock of the harm that targeting noncombatants is having on its cause. This paper will provide a phased analysis of how al Qaeda’s provision of noncombatant immunity disintegrated over time and why it may be returning today. This progression of thought and action concerning noncombatants serves as a roadmap by which to understand how and why al Qaeda made these ideological leaps.

The media and many Americans are simply incapable of seeing AQ-Taliban for what they are - as determined by what they do. Those folks should assemble a group of beheadings videos - usually done according to the law and process adopted by AQ-Taliban - and watch them while dwelling on what they are watching.

PS: Keeping in mind what AQ-Taliban do, I can't get very excited by the antics (and misdemeanors - defaced a military recruitment office & hearings disruptions) of Code Pink. They do more harm than good to their anti-war cause; so also, many protesters in the Vietnam Era.