BOMBS WITHOUT BORDERS
Eight days ago, the plane came. One of the most destructive forces on Earth rained down missiles and cannon fire and bombs on a target in Kunduz, the Taliban-infested Afghanistan town of 300,000, north of Kabul, near the Tajikistan border.
The strike was successful, say that. The hour-long attack from above had pinpoint accuracy, terrorising firepower and the results the US-led coalition wanted as it nears its 14th anniversary of fighting in Afghanistan: target building destroyed, 22 dead, 37 wounded.
Just one problem. Ten of the dead were medical staff of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders) and the other 12 were their patients. Likewise, 19 of the wounded were MSF workers, the others were sick or already wounded. Oh, and the target building struck again and again for an hour was a hospital.
After three days of horror and rising sentiment about the attack, US President Barack Obama got on the horn to MSF director Joanne Liu. The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke to the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize winner. The White House spokesman said he apologised but was coy about the words used. Other accounts weaselled that Mr Obama gave Ms Liu a “personal expression of regret” and promised a “transparent, thorough and objective” investigation.
Ms Liu “noted” this. Quelle surprise. Imagine whether a wife would accept a husband’s expression of regret without use of the words “apologise” and “sorry”.
So, no actual apology, then, and a promise that the US military will investigate the US military. And to cap it all, here’s the comforting words of US Army Gen John Campbell, who commands US and coalition forces in Afghanistan: “We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.”
Oh? In the Vietnam war, the US military intentionally and repeatedly made it clear there was no such thing as a “hospital” or a protected medical facility on the other side in South Vietnam, and attacked every Viet Cong base and facility at will. The entire government including the military also lied repeatedly to the point of attempted blitheness about airstrikes in Cambodia.
Different circumstances, you could argue, since the Viet Cong in the jungles and rice paddies and tunnels did not separate hospitals from other facilities like, say, Doctors Without Borders in Afghanistan.
The unarguable US hypocrisy about bombing and killing isn’t about Vietnam, or about hospitals. Credit the Associated Press reporter Mike Lee for being the first to speak truth to arrogance. Mr Lee recalled that just 14 months ago, the United States assailed and attacked Israel when that country accidentally bombed a school in Rafah, Gaza, and killed 10 people. The reaction, several hours later and before any investigation:
“The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling … The coordinates of the school were communicated to the Israeli Defence Forces … Israel must do more to avoid civilian casualties.”
And the Israeli attack occurred with Israeli forces under direct fire from nearby.
As Mr Lee noted, the United States is not appalled by the disgraceful shelling and bombing and machine-gunning of the Kunduz hospital. Instead, it regretted the attack but hey, you know, don’t make up your mind here before there’s an investigation which should wind up before December.
The C130 Spectre is one of the truly devastating weapons platforms in the skies. It was developed during the Vietnam war as a logical evolution of the aerial gunships that started with the C47 (DC3) Spooky, armed with three 7.62mm Gatling miniguns, or 18,000 rounds per minute. Next came the C119 (Flying Boxcar). They targeted trucks and troops with twin 20mm cannons and four of the electric Gatling guns.
The original AC130 (“A” for “attack”) gunships called Spectre first appeared in warfare in Vietnam, in late 1968. They had at least four miniguns and four six-barrelled, 20mm cannons and a pair of 40mm Bofors cannons. By 1970, they were firing 105mm artillery from a portable howitzer. Later, developers added bays for 250pound bombs under the Spectre’s wings.
This was what attacked the MSF hospital, a flying deck of destruction, honed by 50 years of development, able to linger over targets, flying long figure-eight patterns and returning to hammer their selected target over, and over, and over. And over.
MSF survivors said they were bombed. Others said they were strafed, others that shooting went on for long, unbroken minutes. All are probably correct. The sheer panoply of AC130 weaponry lets the plane bomb, strafe and fire artillery shells with pinpoint accuracy, even all at once. And then fly a loop and come back and do it again.
Ms Liu of MSF was arguably out of line with her post-traumatic statement charging a war crime and violation of the Geneva Convention. War is entirely about violence, and mistakes in war almost always are violent. The first casualty of war is never the truth; it’s usually an old woman or a child.
But the facts here indicate something worse than an accident. MSF informed the US about the hospital, down to its GPS coordinates, and still it was smashed and its workers killed. This sounds very much like someone’s guilty.
Maybe between now and December we will get an inkling.