Today at the Pentagon, I spent the day asking the following question: Are you or aren’t you? As in, is the military going to release an unclassified version of a report that examines how the U.S. forces in Afghanistan killed roughly 50 Afghans during a May offensive against the Taliban? The attack in western Farah province has become a national issue in Afghanistan, an indictment on U.S. tactics when it confronts Taliban fighting and hiding amongst Afghan villagers. For weeks now, the Pentagon has promised to release its findings, but to no avail.
Yesterday, we wrote about the debate within the administration about releasing the findings. And today Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell met with reporters and danced around the question. Afterward, my colleagues looked at each other, completely befuddled as we still didn’t know what the status of the release of the report is. Here is the latest story on its possible release.
Group dynamics are so interesting - this seems to be yet another example of the "institutional embarrassment" effect in action. Nobody wants to be the one to embarrass the institution. It's related, I think, to the well-known "committee effect", except that the pressure is sort of reversed.
Posted by: JohnR | June 18, 2009 at 12:39 PM
I was not there, but i believe the enemy was using civilian houses to fire at US troops. So, they took the buildings out. If AQ/T-ban KNOW we will not fire, this will get worse. It may be a good idea to call off an air-strike, but i'll be damned if I would let them walk. The use of SDB's should lessen Civ. cas., but it will NOT stop the T-ban from "hugging" civilians. Why not use those 2,000lb JDAM's in P-stan, where THEY live? This will go on for years, and we will have acheived NOTHING.
Posted by: SkysoldierLRS101st | July 06, 2009 at 09:58 AM