It has been a bad week for those who still believe that Afghanistan constitutes the altruistic and winnable battlefront of the 'war on terror'.  

On Friday, within days of a Taliban ambush that killed 10 French soldiers, 90 civilians died in a US bombing raid near Herat, 60 of them children. This attack followed last month's bombing of a wedding party, which killed 47 guests as well as the bride.  

President Karzai wants to renegotiate terms under which US and Nato troops operate in Afghanistan. These bombings form part of a disturbing pattern. In the past 12 months, US & Nato bombings in Afghanistan have more than doubled as the Taliban-centred insurgency has grown more powerful.  

Taliban insurgents have also killed large numbers of civilians, but the increasing reliance on high-tech counter-insurgency tactics has resulted in a steady increase in 'collateral damage'. All this has fatally tarnished the coalition's attempts to present itself as the liberators of the Afghan people.  

This discrepancy between rhetoric and reality is not new. From Napoleon's invasion of Egypt to Operation Iraqi Freedom, imperial interventions have been presented as disinterested and generous acts of liberation.  

When foreign armies are given unlimited and unchecked power over people of a different race, religion or nationality who they regard as backward and inferior, such powers are easily abused, particularly when the population refuses to accept its deliverance. 

Afghan Air War Loses Sight Of Real Enemy 

back on the beltway ….. 

The US military said Monday that an attack by coalition forces in Afghanistan last week which allegedly killed dozens of civilians was a "legitimate" assault on Taliban forces. 

"We continue at this point to believe that this was a legitimate strike against the Taliban," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. 

"Unfortunately there were some civilian casualties, although that figure is in dispute, I would say. But this is why it is being investigated," he said. 

Afghanistan Attack Was 'Legitimate' Hit At Taliban: Pentagon 

meanwhile ….. 

The United Nations said on Tuesday it had found convincing evidence that 90 Afghan civilians, most of them children, were killed in air strikes by U.S.-led coalition forces in western Afghanistan last week. 

The issue of civilian casualties has driven a rift between the Afghan government and its NATO backers, with President Hamid Karzai saying earlier this month that air strikes had achieved nothing and had only succeeded in killing ordinary Afghans.

"Investigations by UNAMA (United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan) found convincing evidence, based on the testimony of eyewitnesses, and others, that some 90 civilians were killed, including 60 children, 15 women and 15 men," U.N. Special Envoy to Afghanistan Kai Eide said in a statement. 

UN Says It Has Evidence Air Strikes Killed 90 Afghans 

surprise, surprise …..

Afghanistan is demanding a renegotiation of the rules for international troops in the country after 90 people were killed in US-led attacks on Friday.

The Afghan Cabinet wants to review the "limits of authority and responsibilities" of international troops after 90 people, including 50 children, were killed in the air strikes in Herat.

A Government statement says air strikes on civilian targets, unilateral searches of homes, and illegal detentions of Afghan civilians must be stopped.

Afghan Government Demands New Rules Of Engagement