With Petraeus now in charge, concerns about killing civilians have faded.

[Karmadillo]

http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/2058-qwhy-arent-you-dead-yetq-the-enlightened-war-policies-of-the-peace-laureate.html#disqus_thread

Written by Chris Floyd
Wednesday, 01 December 2010 19:09

One of the most important stories of the day continues to be almost universally ignored, both by the corporate media and most 'progressive' bloggers, eternally absorbed with the shallow and pointless factional foolery amongst the cliques at the imperial court. But Jason Ditz at Antiwar.com has continued to shine a high, harsh light on this sinister development, which is adding a vast storehouse of anguish, hatred and violence that will be the Peace Laureate's chief legacy to future generations.

We refer of course to the Obama Administration's escalation of air strikes in Afghanistan. As Ditz has been noting for some time, the coming of the media-sainted General David Petraeus to take direct command in the contentious satrapy has seen a spike in civilian deaths, as the vaunted "counterinsurgency" expert has "loosened the reins" that had temporarily curtailed the constant dropping of heavy ordnance on civilian residential areas.

Ditz has been doing an expert job of lacing together the few scattered mentions of the Obama-Petraeus Luftkrieg in the American press, along with the considerably more copious coverage in foreign papers. The picture emerging from this pointillist approach is grim: not only are American forces dropping more bombs and killing more civilians, they are increasingly dismissing all reports of collateral carnage as "Taliban trickery." As Ditz notes in his most recent report (see the original for links):

... the Obama Administration is said to be further escalating its air war in Afghanistan, and officials are confirming a “loosening of the reins” of the restrictions on air strikes. Officials warned that the McChrystal rules, aimed at reducing civilian deaths, meant “some officers were exerting excessive caution, fearing career damage if civilians were mistakenly killed.” With Petraeus now in charge, concerns about killing civilians have faded.

more...

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. Just like Vietnam all over again, bomb the the shit out of them.

Seems like they don't have any other tactics. Damn them

[frylock]

2. to be fair, candidate obama did clearly state that he would continue killing civilians

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

4. Like I said above.

[stray cat]

3. Osama is a civilianI guess

[MNBrewer]

5. Can the Peace Prize be repossessed?