Flood gates of Afghan anger are opening

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Xposted in Foreign Affairs.

The Afghan investigation team of legislators investigating the Kandahar killings submitted a chilling report to the Afghan parliament in Kabul earlier today, which alleges that the killings were not the rampage of a rogue sergeant, as Pentagon claims, but a planned massacre involving many troops and even US army helicopters. The team also alleged that two Afghan women were sexually assaulted by the US troops before they were shot. The team claimed that 15 to 20 American troops were involved and it was a case of revenge killing following some insurgent activity in the area.

President Hamid Karzai probably knew that Washington was not telling the whole truth and feared that the cover-up won’t work beyond a point. So he decided to go public and distance himself from the American version. On Friday, Karzai said cryptically that the American version is “not convincing.” He added in good measure, “It is by all means the end of the rope here” — meaning that US-Afghan relations are at a breaking point.

http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2012/03/17/flood-gates-of-afghan-anger-are-opening/

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1. Sgt Bales' secret and an Afghan endgame

Despite the insistence by Washington that the Kandahar killings a week ago were a "rampage" by an "apparently deranged" or "probably deranged" American sergeant, Afghan people believe in the finding by their parliamentarians that up to 15 to 20 US troops were involved. The Afghan president Hamid Karzai also agreed the US version is "not convincing."

Even within the Afghan military establishment, the opinion publicly aired by the Afghan army chief of staff Sher Mohammad Karimi's condemnation of the US troops will prevail. Lieutenant General Karimi who visited the scene of the crime called it a pre-meditated massacre carried out by a number of US troops.

This is going to make the signing of a strategic agreement between Washington and Kabul before the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in Chicago in May highly problematic. Washington expects Karzai to put his signature on the dotted line before May and Karzai knows his political future depends on his performance.

In an extraordinary commentary last week, the influential French troubleshooter Bernard Henri-Levy threatened that the international community should never have "blindly depended upon the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai".

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NC20Df04.html

[PDJane]

2. And that's no surprise..........

The US has bombed the place back to the stone age, polluted the water and the land, and continues to shoot civilians.....for absolutely nothing.

I'd want you out of my country too.