Mass graves discovered in May near the northern city of Shebergan could contain as many as 1,000 bodies of Taliban prisoners who suffocated in sealed trucks last November. The deaths allegedly occurred during the transport of prisoners by a militia under the command of Gen. Abdurrashid Dostum. The Newsweek report described Dostum's militiamen cramming Taliban fighters who had surrendered into sealed trucks for the trip to Shebergan. The report said many prisoners suffocated slowly in the intense heat and that drivers were beaten by Dostum's troops for trying to allow the captives to breathe.
(From that
Mass Afghan Graves article.) Now, as I understand it (and correct me if I'm wrong), if I'm not "with the terrorists," then this war crime is blood on my hands. Although beating and suffocating people sounds pretty terrible and terrifying to me, so what do I know?
Comments
The report also said numerous U.S. Special Forces troops were in the area at the time, but it did not establish whether they were aware of the prisoners' deaths. The Pentagon said Monday that U.S. forces reported they were unaware of what happened to the prisoners.
The U.S. forces were allied with Dostum's troops, and more broadly with the entire Northern Alliance coalition, in ousting the Taliban movement from power last November.
Posted by: zagg | August 29, 2002 12:54 PM
I'm not "with the terrorists", but I certainly ain't with Bush either. But there really couldn't be any other way to look at it, right? There's only two sides. Good (TM) and Evil(TM).
Posted by: zagg | August 29, 2002 12:55 PM
Weren't you on the same side saying (rightly) that we weren't doing enough to remove the oppresive regime of the Taliban prior to 9.11?
Posted by: Oliver | August 30, 2002 1:05 AM
That would be "No."
Posted by: zagg | August 30, 2002 9:04 AM
O-dubya: If you're talking about the destruction of the buddha statues, I think the entire world opposed that, not just rW. There's a difference between that stance and "bombing Afghanistan into Basketball courts." (NY post)
Posted by: david | August 30, 2002 11:37 AM
I also mean things like throwing acid in women's faces, their oppresive policies against all the citizenry. Afghanistan is no basketball court (and passing off commentary from the NY Post is as representative as FoxNews). Afghanistan is better off post-9/11 than pre-9/11. Right now they're at a turning point, and if Bush has a smidgen of sense (he doesn't) he will realize a good amount of nation-building needs to be poured into Afghanistan, ASAP.
Posted by: Oliver | August 31, 2002 1:26 PM
The [living] Afghanis are better off than they were pre 9/11, perhaps.
Posted by: envirowarrior | September 2, 2002 7:15 PM