On Saturday, October 3, a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan was accidentally hit by US forces during an airstrike, killing and injuring innocent civilians. Afghan forces were taking fire from enemy positions and called for U.S. back up, hoping to eliminate the threats with an efficient airstrike.
The U.S. top commander in Afghanistan, General John Campbell appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee, vowing that the investigation into the airstrike that hit this hospital will be “thorough, objective, and transparent,” and that the loss of lives from this incident is “tragic.”
The U.S. airstrike killed a total of 22 patients and staff within the hospital located in Kunduz, Afghanistan. The Doctors Without Borders organization has released a statement reading: “There can be no justification for this horrible attack. With such constant discrepancies in the U.S. and Afghan accounts of what happened, the need for a full transparent independent investigation is ever more critical.”
A full investigation is being carried out for this attack and will hopefully shed some light on the suspicion and puzzlement that surround this incident. General Campbell has stated of his forces: “No military in history has done more to avoid harming innocents.” But, Joanne Liu, President of the Medecins Sans Frontieres had issued a statement before Campbell’s testimony stating the hospital was “deliberately bombed” and that “until proven otherwise, the events of last Saturday amount to an inexcusable violation of … [international] law. We are working on the presumption of a war crime.”
A hospital was bombed. Innocent patients and doctors were killed. Americans were the ones dropping the bombs. It doesn’t look for the U.S.
It is not often that our military is in the media for mistakes, let alone committing a major war crime, but I see it as a wake up call to our country and our armed forces. Although our military is at the top of the ranks across the globe, we are not exempt from getting called out on huge f**k ups. Let’s say this airstrike was a complete accident … well innocent people were still killed and now the U.S. military just looks incompetent. Or, let’s say this attack was deliberate and the investigation finds hard evidence that proves why. Then, the U.S. military is evil and has committed a war crime that will not soon be forgotten.
Either way, deliberate or accidental, this incident is a complete catastrophe. Any loss of innocent civilian life due to war is unforgivable and the U.S. must take complete responsibility for the lives that were lost.
