Headlines

Errant U.S. Rocket Strike Kills Civilians in Afghanistan

Coalition forces fired two rockets with the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System at insurgents firing upon Afghan and ISAF forces, but they struck about 300 meters off their intended target, ISAF said.

Coalition forces have also suspended use of the HIMARS pending a review of Sunday's incident. The intended target was an insurgent compound from where coalition forces were taking direct fire, ISAF said.

The headline comes from the New York Times. The sentences below it come from CNN. Stories about this incident can be found on any major news network. This incident happened during the recent operations in the town of Marja, a known Taliban stronghold. This operation, a combined coalition and Afghan operation with approximately 15,000 troops of which almost half are Afghan military, was specifically advertised in advance to encourage people to leave (both civilians and Taliban) to limit the number of casualties. I will never make light of civilian casualties, having seen enough of them already in my time here, but I question the immediate suspension of a very useful weapons system because the rounds went off target by 300 meters. I guess that this is what the expression "sheer folly of war" means. To quote George Costanza, "I am without speech."

So, with that as introduction, I thought I would present a few more headlines/stories that you might not have seen.

Taliban apologizes for accidentally killing civilians in suicide bombing

A suicide bomber struck a U.S. patrol near Kandahar on Saturday, killing 3 and injuring more. Multiple civilians, including children, were also injured and killed (including 2 of 3 brothers) in the attack. The Taliban apologized for the accidental killing of civilians and has suspended all suicide bombings pending a review of Saturday's incident.

Taliban surprised that IEDs kill civilians too, pledges to remove them all

It has recently come to the attention of the Taliban leadership that IEDs kill and maim a surprising number of civilians. "Weirdest thing, we've planted more of these IEDs than poppy seeds recently, and they seem to also kill and injure civilians when they explode. Who knew?" said a source close to the Taliban leadership.

Small child severely injured trying to retrieve unexploded ordnance

While the truth may never come out, officials expressed surprise that a child would crawl through the barbed wire onto a guarded coalition range to try to retrieve unexploded ordnance. "It seems unlikely that this act was done of his own volition" a source close to the officials was quoted as saying. The child was unfortunately severely injured when the ordnance exploded.

So there you have it. Some headlines that you might have missed. I guess maybe I'm reading a different newspaper.

It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it.

Robert E. Lee, Statement at the Battle of Fredericksburg (13 December 1862)