{"id":17409,"date":"2015-11-28T16:17:10","date_gmt":"2015-11-29T00:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=17409"},"modified":"2015-11-28T16:17:10","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T00:17:10","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-28112015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/28\/squatchs-open-thread-28112015\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread 28\/11\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

I slept in today and did it ever feel good.  Saturdays should be like that from time to time.  I'm off to pick up some tastey buns that look like cinnamon rolls but instead have pesto and cheese.  They are oh so good!<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle — <\/strong>Today’s took me 3:11 (average 4:52). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. How did you do? <\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The New Yorker<\/span><\/a><\/strong> <\/strong>— <\/strong><\/span>On <\/strong><\/span>Saturday, at 2:08 A.M.<\/small> local time, an American AC-130 began to bomb a hospital run by Médecins Sans Frontières<\/a> (Doctors Without Borders), in Kunduz, Afghanistan. According to accounts from doctors and nurses, the air strike continued for more than an hour, in fifteen-minute waves. The hospital burned for hours afterward; photos and videos from the scene show the structures illuminated by flames from within. “We tried to take a look into one of the burning buildings,” a nurse named Lajos Zoltan Jecs<\/a>said, in a statement distributed by M.S.F. “In the Intensive Care Unit, six patients were burning in their beds.” At least twenty-two people, ten patients and a dozen staff members, were killed by the strike or by the fires that the bombs started. <\/p>\n

Click through for some of the questions that still need answering, even almost 2 months later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Common Dreams<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>— Doctors Without Borders is challenging the Pentagon over the findings of internal probes into the bombing of a hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz on October 3, saying the military's conclusions offer "more questions than answers" and that claims of "human error" simply don't correspond to the available facts. …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

"The frightening catalogue of errors outlined today illustrates gross negligence on the part of U.S. forces and violations of the rules of war," said MSF director general Christopher Stokes. (Photo: Andrew Quilty\/Foreign Policy)<\/span><\/p>\n

Pentagon spokesman Gen. Wilson Shoffner said "some individuals have been suspended from their duty positions" for failing to follow "rules of engagement" and are awaiting disciplinary action. <\/p>\n

Sorry, but not good enough General Shoffner.  Click through to see the log of calls made by MSF Kabul to the OCHA Civil Military liaison in Afghanistan, among others. <\/span><\/p>\n

Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — As  the powerful American gunship circled over the densely packed Afghan city of Kunduz on the night of Oct. 3, the crew was flying blind, with little prior intelligence as to where potential Taliban targets were located and without access to key video or electronic communications systems, which were down for much of the mission.  …<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u2018Human<\/p>\n

The exterior of the bombed out Kunduz hospital that was staffed by MSF.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brig. Gen. Wilson Shoffner, spokesman for the NATO command in Kabul, said members of the crew of the AC-130 gunship “did not follow the rules of engagement” in launching the 29-minute attack, and have been suspended from their duties pending possible disciplinary action.  …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The mistakes on Oct. 3 began even before the plane took off from base. An investigation by the U.S. military has found that the gunship launched without being briefed on “crucial mission materials, including no-strike info that would have determined the coordinates of the hospital,” Campbell said. The investigation also found that the crew relied almost entirely on a physical description of the building, as opposed to grid coordinates, which led to the strike on the wrong building.<\/p>\n

And when all is said and done, will anyone truly be held accountable for this tragedy?  The MSF is calling for an independent investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC).  I was reading that the MSF has called this a war crime.  <\/span><\/p>\n

When all is said and done, there should be no wrist slaps or suspensions. There should be real accountabilty including an international trial at The Hague, substantial prison time right up the line (not just those flying the mission that should not have been), reparations and fines.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a petition at <\/span>Change.org<\/strong><\/span><\/a> signed by 542,102 supporters with a goal of 1 million signatures, asking Obama to consent to "an independent international investigation into the events of October 3 by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC), the only permanent body set up specifically to investigate violations of international humanitarian law."<\/span><\/p>\n

YouTube <\/b>— Pardoning of the Thanksgiving turkeys<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n